


BLOOD MOON

by moonlumie



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Blood and Violence, Explicit Sexual Content, First Time, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Gratuitous Volleyball, M/M, Teenage Sexual Activity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:40:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25498501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonlumie/pseuds/moonlumie
Summary: “What’s his deal today, Yamaguchi?” Hinata asked.“What do you mean?” Tadashi feigned ignorance.“I mean Tsukishima’s usually all… ‘ Tch! Tch! Peasants. So annoying.’ but today it’s like his eyes are all ‘ woooah grrrrrr’, you know?”Tadashi wanted to deny it, but it’s not like he had a better description.———In the break between their first and second years at Karasuno High School, something changes about Tsukishima Kei.Or maybe Yamaguchi Tadashi is just paranoid... he desperately hopes he's just paranoid.
Relationships: Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi
Comments: 95
Kudos: 536





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my first Haikyuu fic! I'll add more tags as they come up in future chapters. Thanks to Kath for her read through! Thanks to Emma for sucking us into a new fandom once again. 
> 
> Enjoy!

☽ 〇 ☾

Spring break wasn’t long. Tadashi blinked after the graduation ceremony and then suddenly he was walking through the Karasuno High School gates as a second-year. The break was bittersweet, and potent, but it was over before Tadashi could even wrap his head around the fact that the third years were really moving on. It was mostly superficial, the transition between school years, even though it seemed to signify so much. It wasn’t like Tadashi was much older, or much wiser, but after just a few short weeks, they went from impertinent, overachieving first-years to helping Yachi sort through new club applications. 

Ennoshita was taking the lead as the newly christened captain, but the (former) first-year group was tight so it wasn’t surprising that Yachi gravitated to Tadashi and Hinata to help sort through the surprisingly large stack of applications to the Karasuno Volleyball Club. Even though the third-years didn’t seem concerned by the pile of papers in the corner of the club room, it felt weird to Tadashi. There had only been four of them the previous year until Shimizu-san had brought in Yachi.

Sometimes Tadashi ruminated on their small, volatile group. Even as a bunch of first-years, they had made up almost half of the regular starting roster. It had made Tadashi feel left out at first, to be the only one starting in the box, but the fact was that most first years didn’t even get an official uniform. Tadashi had a number, a place, and a role to play. They’d been special, all of them: Hinata, Kageyama, Himself… and Tsukki, of course.

Tsukishima, who’d disappeared on Tadashi halfway through the break. He’d got a text, just a few minutes before he’d expected Tsukishima to arrive for a sleepover, one of their many spring break traditions. 

> From: Tsukki  
>  **Sorry, can’t come tonight. Caught a bad spring cold.**
> 
> To: Tsukki  
>  **Oh no! Do you need anything?**
> 
> From: Tsukki  
>  **No. Thank you.**

That was the last Tadashi had heard from Tsukishima before the entrance ceremony, beyond a few texts confirming that Tsukki was still sick and Tadashi shouldn’t come by. He had stopped by his house a few times anyway, dropping off some meat buns and sweets with the newest edition of Volleyball Monthly. Tsukishima’s mom had answered the door but said her son was sleeping and had told her he didn’t want anyone to bother him.

“You know how he is, Tadashi-kun,” she’d laughed.

“Yeah…” 

Tsukishima texted him on the morning of the first day of the new year, telling him he still wasn’t feeling well and that he’d see him the next day at club. The rest of the day was sort of off-kilter for Tadashi.

He couldn’t start anything as big as a new school year without Tsukki after all, not really. 

The next day, Tsukishima finally reappeared at their usual meeting spot around the corner from Tadashi’s house. He had a scarf wrapped high around his neck. He tucked his chin below the folds, his blond hair starting to flop over his forehead. He looked a little paler than usual and had shadows below his eyes, but otherwise looked okay. 

“Tsukki! Are you feeling better?” Tadashi asked, feeling relief bloom in his chest as he fussed with his own hair.

It was growing out, too, and he hadn't quite decided if he was going to chop it all off or try something more wild like Asahi-san’s. Maybe it would make him look more serious, cooler. 

“I’m fine,” Tsukki said, offering a half-smile.

Tadashi’s smile faltered in response to Tsukki’s expression. It was tinged with something that Tadashi couldn’t place. Something a step behind. Something he saw out of the corner of his eye that Tadashi couldn’t pinpoint clearly enough to speak into reality, an instinctual prickle at the back of his neck.

Tadashi shook his head and fell into step with his best friend. 

They walked to school side by side, Tsukishima telling Tadashi about some new music he found over break, the quiet words puffing out with soft fog into the air. Their classmates didn’t usually get to see this side of Tsukishima. Tadashi didn’t mind how energetic they were, but someone like Tsukki would never respond well to it. He was a bit like house-cat. The more noise you made, the more you pushed to get his attention, the faster he’d move away from you… or lash out with a calculated strike of claws. You had to give him space, and patience. It would always have to be Tsukishima’s decision, unsolicited, to approach. 

That was just fine with Tadashi. 

Tadashi, who greedily took in Tsukishima’s words. He knew it was dramatic, but it felt like taking the first long draught from his water bottle after a summer sprint. It had only been two weeks since Tadashi had heard from Tsukishima, but it felt like a lot longer. Silence fell naturally between them and sat comfortably for a few minutes. 

“Tsukki,” Tadashi finally said, waiting until golden eyes met his own to continue. “Are you sure you’re ok? I don’t think you’ve ever been sick that long.”

He was so focused on the extremely subtle shifts in Tsukishima’s pale face that he didn't see the crack in the pavement in front of him. The tip of his shoe caught the concrete ridge and Tadashi’s body pitched sideways.

His cheek hit the soft fabric of Tsukishima’s scarf as he tumbled forward. If they were in a romance novel, time would have slowed. But they weren’t, and it didn’t. Instead, Tadashi went from trying to bring his arms up to grab Tsukishima or brace himself for a fall to slamming against the retaining wall that held up the yards of the houses further up the hill in a millisecond flat. 

He gasped as his shoulder blades hit brick, breath forced out of his lungs. Tadashi could feel heat on his left cheek and it was an incomprehensible second before he realized that it came from Tsukishima’s face, only centimeters away. Long fingers dug into his biceps, nearly painful, and Tadashi froze, heart rabbiting in his chest. The prickling from earlier was back and the buzzing in the back of his head was escalated to inexplicable alarm bells. 

“Tsukki?!”

The pressure on him released. 

“Wa—Watch where you walk, Yamaguchi.”

By the time that Tadashi could remember how to move his body, Tsukishima was halfway down the block. For the third time that morning, Tadashi shook himself out of his head. 

“Tsukki! Wait up!”

☽ 〇 ☾

The day had started normally. It came with plans to meet up and stay the night at Yamaguchi’s, like so many other days during school breaks since he was in elementary school. That day, Kei needed to swing by the athletic supply store downtown to pick up a new set of sports glasses. His first pair got a big scratch across the right lens the other week when they’d been knocked to the ground by Karasuno’s overexcited libero climbing him like a tree mid-game, to Kei’s cold fury. 

The scratch was too distracting and now that he’d gotten used to the sports glasses, he couldn’t imagine going back to wearing his regular ones while playing. It had been harder than expected to find a pair that he liked, and the sun was already sinking behind the mountains when Kei realized he’d forgotten to bring his most recent copy of Shonen Jump for Yamaguchi—they’d been sharing magazine subscriptions since middle school. 

Kei glanced at his phone. Still had enough time to grab it before heading over to Yamaguchi’s if he took a shortcut through the greenbelt by the park. 

If only Kei had just taken the main road, he’d think later. 

The shadows were darker than Kei had anticipated and he flipped on his phone flashlight to make sure he didn’t stumble over any stray roots. He smiled to himself as he remembered the time when he was younger and Yamaguchi had tripped on a thick root and skinned up his knee so badly that Kei had to give him a piggyback ride home. Yamaguchi had tried to stifle his crying but it ended up just making him sound more upset, to a young Kei’s quiet amusement. Kei had complained, but he hadn’t _really_ minded the boy’s salty tears splashing down onto his neck, wetting the collar of his tee-shirt. 

Later he’d told Yamaguchi that the scab on his knee made him look cool, and his friend had smiled so big that he looked like he might start crying again. 

Kei heard the sound of a stick snapping in two. He stopped, holding his flashlight upwards, cursing as he realized how truly dark it had become. The bright, white light had messed with his night vision. Everything outside the cone may as well have been invisible. 

He froze, trying to hear another sound, trying to remember what he was supposed to do if he ran into a boar. 

Blind in the dark, Kei didn’t see anything at all before he heard a wild snarl and something heavy slammed into him, hard. He stumbled backward, the weight following him, pushing, and Kei grunted as his head cracked against a tree trunk. A hand closed over his mouth, iron-strong.

Before he could even start to get his bearings, pain exploded in Kei’s neck. He thrashed and felt something rip that wasn’t supposed to rip. 

_Help!_

A deep, feral groan rumbled from his attacker, and _teeth_ sunk even deeper into flesh. Those were _teeth_. 

Kei tried to shout out. It hurt so much. Warmth seeped down his chest, soaking into his coat as Kei struggled. The pressure on his neck briefly let up and later Kei will realize he heard raspy words in an unfamiliar voice, _Fuck, so good,_ before the pain returned with a vengeance. His eyes squeezed shut as he tried and failed to scream through the palm pressing violently into his face. 

_Help!_

Some hysterical part of his brain that was still working flashed to images from nature documentaries. The wild thumping of his heart and the way he struggled with every ounce of his strength to no avail—is this what went through a gazelle’s mind when its throat was clamped between the jaws of a lion? 

_Help! Please!_

The pain began to dull and Kei felt the fight gradually go out of his limbs against his will. Something was pulsing sluggishly out from the place where his attacker was sucking at his bleeding neck, Kei realized. He’s not sure how long he hung there, knees buckled, an unfamiliar arm barring him up against the trunk of an oak, his head pinned at a sharp angle to expose his shredded flesh. Once he stopped struggling he could hear the feral grunts and rapid breathing of his attacker. 

Kei’s head started to go fuzzy. It was different than the numb sedation that had spread out from the wounds. His phone was still shining up from the forest floor and the beam of light seemed to fade and brighten intermittently. 

_Bloodloss,_ a tiny voice in his head whispered. _You’ve lost too much blood._

He blacked out for a while, coming to when his body crumpled to the forest floor. 

“Shit,” he heard a rough voice say. “Fuck, did I hit his jugular? _Shit!”_

Kei heard rustling and sensed a body move closer to his own, even though he couldn’t even summon the energy to raise his gaze from the forest floor. He felt shooting pain radiate from his neck as he was rolled onto his back.

“Hey, _kid_ , don’t fucking die. I don’t need the goddamn cops after me,” the voice said. Kei certainly didn’t have the ability to laugh at that moment, but he almost wanted to. He was _definitely_ dying, a tiny voice in his head whispered. He felt a few slaps against his face as he started fading out again. “Fucking shit.”

Kei heard a hiss, and then a _plip-plip_ of liquid splashing to the dirt. He felt a hand force his jaw open and then something pressed against his lips. His mouth filled with coppery liquid and he was too weak to do anything but let it slide down his throat.

Kei could see stars, through a break in the canopy. Everything else looked faded, muddy, but the stars were stark pinpoints of light above him. A few final thoughts fluttered aimlessly through his head, remembered voices, young and soft.

_What’s that one called, Tsukki?_

_That’s Alpha Centauri._

_Wow… you’re so smart, Tsukki._

The fire started in his belly, suddenly, and violently. Kei convulsed. It spread, out and out. It climbed back up his throat and filled his eyes. A hand slapped down over his mouth again as he began to scream and scream. 

He vaguely remembered whispered words from his attacker in the aftermath—instructions, warnings. The words wouldn’t really make sense until later. 

When Kei’s head cleared and he opened his eyes, only thirty or so minutes had passed since he entered the forest. He was alone. 

He sat up and felt dried blood flaked off the smooth and unbroken skin of his neck. 

☽ 〇 ☾

Tadashi would be lying if he’d said everything just slotted into place with Tsukishima’s return to his side. He wished that was the case, but maybe Tsukishima was still a little sick. Though, Tadashi suspected he might just be being a bit too sensitive himself until after school practice. 

Coach Ukai had them practicing blocking positioning, using Kageyama and rotating cast of spikers to train the blockers to read and react to different situations. Chaos broke out the sixth time that Tsukishima managed to get a hand on one of Hinata’s spikes. The familiar double thwack of a spike and a one-touch was followed by a frustrated howl from Hinata. 

Tadashi saw Tsukishima lean towards the net menacingly but couldn’t hear his words. Hinata’s eye twitched and then he leapt away and tried to climb up the back of an extremely unamused Kageyama. 

“What the heck is up with you today, Tsukishima?! You’re like… at least _three_ times scarier than usual,” Hinata said, pointing accusingly over Kageyama’s shoulder as the setter tried to shake him off. 

“ _Tch,_ ” Tsukishima replied as he turned back to the line of their teammates waiting for their turn. 

It wasn’t a particularly unusual response, nor was the way the rest of their teammates gave Tsukki ample space. Though, the new first years seemed to be actively trying to hide behind Kinoshita and Tanaka which was a bit excessive, especially since Tanaka had subjected them to _his_ whole upperclassman intimidation routine yesterday before Ennoshita had been able to shut him down. 

Tadashi jogged around the group to approach his friend. 

“If you ask me if I’m okay again I’m going to throw our next Nat Geo magazine into the trash instead of giving it to you,” Tsukishima said.

Tadashi chuckled.

“I’m not, I’m not. I was just wondering if you could maybe break down the way you position yourself and your hands in relation to the spiker for the first years? You know the stuff Kuroo-san taught you?” Tadashi said as he watched another first-year get a ball shoved between his hands by Hinata. 

“Fine,” Tsukki said after a pause, waving over at Ukai and approaching the group of first years that were still mostly clustered up like nervous cattle. 

It wasn’t a second before Hinata materialized in the space Tsukishima had just vacated.

“What’s his deal today, Yamaguchi?”

“What do you mean?” Tadashi feigned ignorance. 

“I mean he’s usually all… ‘ _Tch! Tch! Peasants. So annoying.’_ but today it’s like his eyes are all ‘ _woooah grrrrrr’,_ you know?”

Tadashi wanted to deny it, but it’s not like he had better words to describe it.

“He was really sick over the break. Maybe he’s still just not feeling well,” Tadashi defended loyally. 

Hinata opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by Kageyama wandering over with a volleyball on his hip and a water bottle in hand.

“I think that spindly one is going to cry,” he said. 

They looked over at a first-year who seemed to be trying to melt into the wall as Tsukishima raised his arms up to show him proper hand and arm positioning. 

“Kikuchi!” Hinata supplied helpfully and then stepped fully behind Kageyama to shout. “Scaryshima! Stop terrifying the first-years!”

The glare it earned Hinata could have melted iron. 

As usual for this time of year, it was dark when Tadashi and Tsukishima finally headed down the hill away from campus and towards home. 

“Do you want to come to mine and do homework? My mom is making gyudon,” Tadashi said when they split off from Hinata and Kageyama’s bickering. 

“Mm, think I’m just going to head home,” Tsukishima said and pulled out his headphones.

Tadashi fought a strange sinking feeling in his chest. It wasn’t that strange for Tsukki to occasionally want to head straight home. He had just been sick after all. It also wasn’t that strange for him to want to just listen to music on the way home. 

And yet… and yet, the feelings Tadashi hadn’t really had to deal with since early middle school rattled in their box at the back of Tadashi’s head. 

“Oh. Ok, Tsukki,” he replied with an even voice. “I’ll see you tomorrow!”

Tadashi waited until he was around the corner, away from Tsukishima, to take a deep breath in and blow it out through his lips harshly. Then he slapped both hands to his cheeks, hard. 

_Come on, Tadashi,_ he thought to himself. _Get it together!_

☽ 〇 ☾

Kei wasn’t so dramatic as to throw himself down onto his bed when he got home, but he sure thought about it. Instead, he quickly changed out of his school uniform and then pulled a small unlabeled bottle out of a tiny, six can fridge he’d hidden in the back of his closet. He slumped into his desk chair and set the bottle down on the tabletop with a harsh _clink_. 

Kei pulled off his glasses momentarily and rubbed his thumb and fingers over his eyes until he saw spots. He placed his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose carefully and flipped open the notebook that was sitting at the corner of his desk. He stared down at the words. 

Kei had scribbled most of them down feverishly as soon as he returned home, at the crack of dawn after that horrible night. He’d re-written them multiple times since, cleaning up the language, adding his own observations. 

They were the words of the stranger, of the man who ruined his life and yet had the decency to give him some pro tips after nearly letting him bleed out on a forest floor. 

Kei ran a long finger over the page as he thought about the way fangs had dropped down from his gums when Yamaguchi stumbled into him that morning. The divots in the paper felt deep below his fingerprints. 

There was no title, just little dashed bullet points

> _\- Almost everything in movies about vampires is bullshit_
> 
> _\- You won’t be burned by sunlight. You definitely won’t sparkle in it. You don’t have to be invited into anyone’s house._
> 
> _\- You’re alive. You’re mortal. One day you will die an old man… if you don’t get yourself killed before then._
> 
> _\- Vampires are predatory parasites. Your survival depends on obtaining blood without attracting attention._
> 
> _\- Vampires have only four things that make them special and they all relate to the previous point:_
> 
>   1. _An increase in strength, but only once a feeding response is triggered._
>   2. _An amnesia-inducing thrall. (This wasn’t used on me)._
>   3. _Sedative venom. (The man said it makes people docile. Think it must be a muscle relaxant or something)._
>   4. _Healing blood - your blood has healing properties. It makes you heal way faster than regular people. Applied topically it can heal small wounds in humans, which you should do_ ** _if_** _you feed on humans to close the bite wound. Given orally and ingested after a human has been envenomated, it will cause a rapid physiological shift resulting in the transformation of a human into a vampire._
> 

> 
> _\- You can drink animal blood, but it's not going to scratch the itch like human blood._
> 
> _\- The hungrier you are, the harder your feeding response will be to control. Avoid getting too hungry at all costs._

The man had said _when_ he feeds on humans but Kei changed it to _if_ and underlined it in his second re-writing. He wasn’t going to let some asshole that almost killed him in the woods decide if he was going to become a predatory cannibal. 

It was with that thought in his head that Kei swiped the bottle off the desk and unscrewed the top. His lips curled at the smell of the chicken blood he’d purchased from the butcher yesterday. It smelled worse than when he bought and drank some yesterday in preparation to go back to school. His fangs didn’t even drop this time, but with how little the bottled blood slated the new hunger that had been growing in the base of his gut yesterday, Kei had to try and get the second bottle down. 

Kei grimaced and tipped the bottle back sharply, trying to drink it as quickly as possible. He held his breath, squeezed his eyes shut, slammed the bottle back to the table when it was empty. Kei sat, back stiff, jaw clenched, for one second… two seconds… three. 

Then Kei stood up, grabbed the trash-can by his desk, and evacuated the contents of his stomach over his discarded orientation papers. 

☽ 〇 ☾

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Would love to hear what you think!
> 
> You can follow me at my new fandom twitter [here](https://twitter.com/moonlumie) and if you liked the story I'd really appreciate a retweet of the fic tweet here since I'm just getting into the game!
> 
> Thank you all so much and the next chapter will be up soon!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Yucky Vampire Realism. See end of work notes for specifics. 
> 
> Thank you to Kath for the read through! Hope you enjoy the new chapter!

☽ 〇 ☾

The next week goes by in much the same way as the first day Tsukishima returned to school. Tadashi goes to school and Tsukki is there. They go to practice and Tsukishima supplies extremely reasonable reasons he can’t do homework with Tadashi--or go to the new movie they’d definitely talked about going to at the beginning of the summer, or stay behind with the team for meat buns, even though Tanaka had given him the full shakedown for skipping out on team bonding. 

“Sorry! My brother made me promise to let him interview me for a marketing project at college,” Tsukishima said with his _happy sociopath_ smile, as Hinata called it.

It worked better on teachers and authority figures than on their own age group, who could usually sense the derision behind the mild expression. Still, only Noya continued to mildly bitch as they headed through the doors of Sakanoshita. 

“Whatever, dude!” Tanaka tossed over his shoulder. 

“See you tomorrow, Tsukki,” Tadashi said, a beat too late.

Tsukishima was already walking away. Tadashi sighed and then followed the rest of the team into the store. Hinata was holding court with a pack of four first-years that all had at least six inches on him, a meat bun in each hand. Nearby, Kageyama seemed to be dissociating into his snack consumption experience. Tanaka and Noya were playing some weird game with their hands that Tadashi thought he remembered playing in elementary school. Ennoshita and Ukai were leaning over the front counter and waved Tadashi over as he entered. 

“Vice-Captain!” Ukai barked and handed him a meat bun. “We’re trying to figure out lineups for the first-year game tomorrow. Also for the practice game against Johzenji next week.”

Tadashi took a bite and chewed as he looked over the whiteboard where they were working through the players. 

“I think we’re going to create 3 teams actually, and do a round-robin,” Ennoshita explained. 

With nine first-years joining the club, they almost had enough for three full teams with the entire club participating, but not quite.

“We’ll have Nishinoya and Sano each take one of Team 3s games since we only have the two liberos, and we’ll give Hinata and Kageyama play on two teams each to fill out the final open slots,” Ukai said. “Maybe they’ll actually be tired by dinner that way.” 

“So weird to think we have this many players,” Yamaguchi mused as he looked over the lineups. 

“That’s what happens when you’re a powerhouse school, kiddos. Yamaguchi, we’ll have you take the lead on Team 2, with Kikuchi, Nakagawa, and Sano,” Ukai continued. “We’ll leave Team 1 to Tanaka, and then I’ll have you, Ennoshita, handle Team 3 with Matsui, Ueda, and Fukada. Team 3 will have the least stability since they’ll have different liberos and we’ll be having Hinata and Kageyama filling in that WS position in each of their games.”

Ennoshita got a sort of dissociative, faraway look in his eye. Tadashi didn’t envy him. Kageyama would go in saying he was fine playing a wing spiker for a game, but was likely to incinerate their poor first-year setter with his eyes by the end of the first set. Then there was Hinata, who was so deeply idolized by Matsui that their most talented first-year had a habit of whiffing on half his serves and spikes when Hinata was around because he was trying so hard to impress him. Then Hinata would get so excited about Matsui calling him senpai that _he’d_ start messing up.

Ukai slapped Ennoshita on the back hard enough that Tadashi winced in sympathy. 

“You’ll be fine!” Ukai said as he flipped the whiteboard over. “Now both harder and easier… the Johzenji game. Even with so many first years in the club, unless something crazy happens in the games on Saturday, I don’t think we’ll have more than one first year in our starting lineup in the practice match.” 

Tadashi looked over the lineup diagram and then his eyes widened. 

“Why is Hinata in the wing spiker spot?” Yamaguchi said in the place of the real question ringing around his head.

_I’m in the starting line-up?!_

Ukai leaned back and knit his fingers over his stomach.

“Yeah, that… well based on my understanding, Hinata was really put in as a middle blocker due to lack of other options. It did help him and Kageyama get the most out of their insane quick, but they can use it in more situations now. Plus, those two have a lot of other weapons in their arsenal at this point and I need to think about how to maximize the strength of the team as a whole,” Ukai explained, tipping his chair back. “We lost two wing spikers with vastly different skills, which has us losing both Asahi’s attack power and the ground defense that Daichi brought to the table.”

Ennoshita smiled, “Plus, Hinata is definitely planning to try and play volleyball after high school and...”

“Teams are going to want tall blockers. The world of volleyball is changing, for sure. But if there’s one position where height is king, it’s the middle blocker position. Wing spiker was always going to be Hinata’s natural position, especially since he’s been focusing on receiving so much since last year and seems to be progressing rapidly there. We can get back some of the ground defense we lost by not swapping the pipsqueak out when he’s on the backline,” Ukai continued. “With Hinata’s stamina and increasing toolbox, the more time he’s on the court, the better.”

This all made sense to Tadashi when it was broken down like that. Hinata had come a really long way from his starting role as Kageyama’s blind weapon. But… that had really never been Tadashi’s question.

“But… why am I in?” he asked. “And Ennoshita, why aren’t you taking the last wing spiker spot.”

Ennoshita smiled and Ukai snorted. 

“Look, Ennoshita might still be our best option. We’ll decide after Saturday. He, unlike you apparently, remembers that our team puts together the line-up that gives us the best chance of winning,” Ukai said. “We got a lot of interesting new players this year, but we actually didn’t get many middle blockers. From what I’ve seen so far, you’re the third-best middle blocker on this team, and moving Hinata to the left makes you the second-best. That puts you in the starting line-up. The day that isn’t true is the day you’ll start in the box again. Understood?”

Tadashi felt young again, heart thumping in his chest. He pressed his lips together to stop them from wobbling and nodded sharply. 

“Yes, coach,” he said.

“Alright, now that that’s out of the way, help me figure out how we want to organize the wing spikers and tell me what you thought about the rookies…” 

On his way home, Tadashi sends Tsukishima a text.

> To: Tsukki
> 
> **> >You have new competition for best middle blocker in the starting lineup **
> 
> From: Tsukki
> 
> **> >???**

Still feeling a little floaty from the conversation with Ukai, Tadashi held out his phone for a selfie, squishing a peace sign against his face.

> To: Tsukki
> 
> **_> >*Pic Attached*_ **
> 
> **> >They’re trying Hinata at WS so I’m in as the other MB. I thought they might try Kikuchi or something but apparently it’s me.**
> 
> From: Tsukki
> 
> **> >Don’t be stupid. You’re better than Kikuchi. He’s terrible. **

It’s not exactly a direct ringing endorsement, but it brings a small smile to Tadashi’s face. Though, soon it drops away.

 _Wish you’d been here when I found out,_ he thinks as he turns onto his street. 

☽ 〇 ☾

Kei was just arriving home when he got Yamaguchi’s text. He found himself smiling softly at the photograph, happy for his friend. It had been a while since they got to really play together. He was looking forward to it. 

“Kei?” he heard his mom call out. “I wasn’t sure when you’d be home from practice so there’s dinner for you in the fridge.”

“Thanks,” Kei said as he grabbed the plate of food and went to his room. 

Kei had been pleasantly surprised to find out that he still could eat regular food. His appetite seemed to have shrunk some, but when he experimentally avoided food for two days over the break, he had gotten faint and weak. So apparently there’s still part of him that needs human food. 

Kei ate while he worked on his homework for the evening, desperately ignoring the clawing in his stomach that the rice and vegetables didn’t sate. He had to wait until his parents went to bed to deal with that. 

He waited until after his mom knocked on his door to say goodnight before putting his homework away and retrieving the shopping he picked up on the way home--black towels, black sweats, and a small cardboard box. Kei swallowed thickly and fought the urge to throw up. 

A blinding headache had been building behind his eyes all day, though. Practice hadn’t felt dangerous, but Kei hated the way he was so _aware_ of all the bodies moving quickly around him, of how much skin was exposed…

Kei hated that he’d started to be able to hear his teammates pulses. That was new. 

He needed something more reliable than chicken blood that he could barely keep down and barely scratched the itch. 

Kei changed into the sweats and laid one of the towels out on the ground, leaving a second folded nearby. He left his shirt off and set the box down on the floor before folding his legs under him and kneeling on the towel. Kei heard skittering from inside the box. 

_“What are these for then?”_ the pet store clerk had asked out of curiosity. Kei wasn’t an idiot, he was ready for the question.

 _“A pair of red-tailed boas,”_ Kei had answered smoothly.

_“Oh, that’s really neat!”_

It only made sense that someone might get curious when a customer comes in and asks for the two largest feeder rats the pet store has in stock. 

Kei could hear a pair of rapid heartbeats. His face twisted in disgust but, to his shock, he felt his fangs drop and his mouth fill with saliva. 

“I’ve been eating animals my whole life. This isn’t that different,” Kei lied to himself, aggressively. 

Kei opened the box and his stomach rumbled traitorously. 

It was different.

But Kei focused on the horrific hypothetical that had been bouncing around his head for weeks. His own body slamming into a human form, unable to stop himself. He imagined screams that wouldn’t be able to override instinct. He thought of his mother, of Akiteru, of Tadashi’s smiling face strained and drained pale until his freckles were the only color in his face. 

Kei reached into the box. 

☽ 〇 ☾

_“Mountain Conditioning Camp! Mountain Conditioning Camp!”_

The discourse had already broken down. Ennoshita’s gentle suggestion that a camping trip in May could be a little cold was crushed to dust by the sheer enthusiasm from Nishinoya and Tanaka, with choral support from Hinata, Yachi, and the first-years. Tadashi was fairly neutral; he liked the idea but Ennoshita had a point that it was still pretty early in the year. Tsukishima seemed so stunned by how bad he thought the idea was that he hadn’t even been able to form a sentence, and by the time he seemed to find his voice it was too late. 

“It sounds bracing!” Takeda said.

And that was that. 

“I’m not going,” Tsukishima said as soon as Takeda took off to start getting permissions and logistics planned. 

Tadashi fluttered around Tsukishima nervously as Noya and Tanaka fixed their eyes on him. He had a bad feeling as the third-years suddenly loomed over Tsukki in spite of the fact that he was much taller than either of them. In fact, Noya was literally climbing up onto Tanaka’s shoulders so they could loom properly. He wasn’t getting out of this one. 

A few hours later, as they walked home in deafening silence, Tadashi tried to smooth things over.

“I mean, it won’t be that bad, Tsukki,” Tadashi said. “It might be a bit cold but the first-years are super excited and it’ll be good for team bonding. Hey, we could bring your telescope!”

Tsukishima had his hands jammed into his pockets. A vicious scowl broke through the careful facade of indifference that Tadashi knew he’d been holding in place all day.

“It’s stupid,” Tsukishima said as he came to stop at a corner, and there was a weird tinge to the expression on his face. If Tadashi didn’t know any better he’d call it anxiety. But Tsukki didn’t get anxious, that was Tadashi’s domain. “I’m going this way.”

Tadashi lurched at the corner as Tsukishima turned down a street that neither of them usually went down. He didn’t provide a reason why he wasn’t going home right away.

Tadashi bit at his lips. Once upon a time he was pretty sure he would have been in a position to know why Tsukishima wasn’t going home, but the question curled up and died in his throat.

He was too afraid of the possibility that Tsukki wouldn’t tell him even if he asked. 

On Saturday morning, the bus was absolute chaos as the team made their way towards the campsite. Tadashi sat next to Tsukishima but spent most of the time chatting with Yachi across the aisle. Tsukishima had kept his headphones on since they met up to walk to the school that morning, giving off vaguely threatening vibes. Tadashi was about to give up on trying to convince the first-years that Tsukki wasn’t so intimidating once you got to know him. He’d been spending way too much time intimidated by Tsukishima himself lately to make that claim in good faith. 

They finally reached the campsite after Coach Ukai’s third outburst about them all _shutting the hell up_ until he finished his coffee. 

“Ok, lets pile the tents and bags up over there and then we’ll set up…” Takeda said as he directed the organization of the various camping supplies they had brought from home or borrowed from neighbors and family. 

There were a handful of family sized tents and a few smaller two person tents. It went uncontested when Tsukishima claimed one of the two person tents, and it was assumed Tadashi would be the one sharing with him. 

“You gonna be alright, Yamaguchi-san, staying with Tsukishima-san?” Matsui, the big first-year wing spiker, asked, looking genuinely concerned for Tadashi. Before he could come up with an answer, however, Matsui got distracted by Hinata and Kageyama across the way. They were currently failing miserably at setting up one of the family sized tents. “Oh, Hinata-senpai, can I stay in your tent?”

“That’s the pole for the rain shell, you moron!” Kageyama shouted, trying to take a short pole from Hinata’s hands.

“No it’s not, _Bakageyama._ It’s for the doorway!”

It quickly devolved into them trying to hit each other with tent poles until Ukai threatened to make them sleep on the bus floor if they didn’t cool it. 

Lost in the scuffle was Tadashi staring over to where Tsukishima was claiming the spot farthest away from the rest of the team. Tadashi would be alright… right?

Any real concerns were forgotten soon after they finished setting up camp. For better or worse, Tanaka and Noya had taken the lead in setting the agenda for the weekend. This meant they began with a steep hike up the mountain to a large field where they did conditioning activities and team building games for hours, before making their way back the mountain an hour or so before the sun set. 

Thankfully, Ukai, Takeda, and Yachi were waiting back at the campsite with piles of food, which the team descended upon like a pack of ravenous wolves. Tadashi caught Yachi covering her mouth in disgust at one point, but it didn’t stop him from shoveling another massive bite of rice into his already half full mouth. 

After cleaning up, the team crowded around the fire as Ennoshita coordinated a scary story telling contest. Tadashi took a seat next to Yachi and pretended not to see Tsukishima slipping away towards the tents.

When Tadashi refocused on the events unfolding in front of him, Hinata was telling a story about a haunted volleyball that only seemed to be scaring Kageyama. 

“If the volleyball always went the opposite way you meant for it to go, I think I could still learn to set it ok…” Kageyama said when Hinata finished. “You’d just have to learn to send it the exact opposite way you actually wanted it to go…”

The ensuing argument only ended when Tanaka stood up and began to tell a generic slasher story at high volume. Noya provided sound effects and jumped out at first years at random. It wasn’t particularly scary but it did leave them in stitches with laughter when Sano, their backup libero, accidentally smacked Noya in the face in fright and then proceeded to grovel on the ground for forgiveness. It was pretty unnecessary considering nobody had found it funnier than Noya himself. In the end it was actually Yachi’s subtle, horrific tale of an abandoned shrine that left them all nervously glancing at the forest shadows as the embers of the dying fire underlit their faces. 

They called it a night after that, with Matsui and Kikuchi asking Hinata and Kageyama if they could leave a flashlight on in the tent. 

“Well, if it’ll make _you guys_ feel less scared, I suppose that’s fine,” Hinata said as he stood very close to a suspiciously uncontesting Kageyama. 

“Thank you, senpai!”

“O-of course!” Hinata said as he jumped about a foot in the air at the sound of a stick cracking somewhere near the third-years’ tent. 

Tadashi approached his own accommodation and opened the door as quietly as he could, angling his flashlight low. Tsukishima was facing the wall of the tent and he didn’t move or say anything when Tadashi stepped inside and got ready for bed. He climbed into his sleeping bag and flipped the light out. He couldn’t see Tsukki, but he could feel his presence just a few feet away.

“Tsukki, are you asleep?”

“Almost.”

Tadashi was actually surprised to get a response. He opened his mouth, wanting to address that fact. He should ask. _You haven’t been yourself. What happened? Are you okay? Did I do something? Are you mad at me?_ Tadashi wants to ask, but the questions get all gummed up with the worst feelings that are welling up in his chest. He thought he was over this. 

Apparently not.

Deep down, Tadashi knows he’s always been a coward. 

“Goodnight, Tsukki.”

“Goodnight, Yamaguchi.”

☽ 〇 ☾

The camping trip had been a terrible idea from the start. It was a perfect storm of everything Kei had been trying to avoid. He hadn’t been able to talk his way out of it, though he’d have to admit he probably should have tried harder. 

But he’d noticed the way Yamaguchi’s voice almost broke when he tried to convince him it wouldn’t be so bad. With that stuck in mind, Kei couldn’t bring himself to even pretend to be sick on the morning of the trip. 

He really should have.

Instead he put himself in a situation where he had to exercise to exhaustion, making himself desperately hungry, and then spend the night in horrifically close proximity to his best friend--who was a known sprawler. 

His biggest problem ended up being one he hadn’t even considered. Kei knew he’d been having nightmares pretty consistently. It wasn’t that rare for him to wake up in a cold sweat. What he didn’t take into consideration was how being in the woods in the dark might affect him. How a sleeping bag might feel constricting, like he was being held down, restrained--attacked. 

It was the most vivid nightmare he’d had since that night. Kei could feel the heat of his attacker’s body, the excruciating pain in his neck. Kei felt his life draining out of him. _He was going to die. Oh, god, Kei was going to die._ He thrashed and thrashed, primal instincts overtaking him. He fought with the concentrated desperation of every prey animal that had ever tried to escape from the jaws of oblivion. 

_“Help, someone, please!”_

“Tsukki?! _Tsukki,_ wake up!”

Kei launched upwards, smashing his forehead into something hard. He heard a sharp gasp. There was more rustling as Kei drew ragged breaths into his pained lungs. He flinched when Yamaguchi found what he was looking for, the lantern hanging from the top of their tent. Kei felt tears on his cheeks and his heart pounded so fast it felt like it might burst. 

Reality wasn’t much better then the dream. Yamaguchi had his eyes squeezed shut and his hands fluttering under his nose as bright red liquid began to pour out of his nostrils.

“Tsukki? Oh shoot,” he turned away to look for a handkerchief. 

The smell of blood drifted into Kei’s nose. It smelled good. Maybe better than anything else he’d ever smelled. Kei was frozen in place. 

Yamaguchi found his handkerchief and jammed it up under his nose before turning back to Kei. He got right up in Kei’s space. Kei should be telling him to stay back. He should be doing _something_ to stop this trainwreck, but he was still reeling from the horrifying shadow images from his dreams. 

“Tsukki, Tsukki, what’s wrong? You were calling out in your sleep and thrashing in your sleeping bag,” Yamaguchi said, his free hand fluttering around Kei’s shoulders and head in concern. 

Yamaguchi had blood smeared across his palm. 

And Kei--he was… fine.

He was fine. 

The world stilled as Kei processed that fact. 

Yamaguchi’s blood smelled like the best thing on planet earth to Kei in that moment, but he was okay. He wasn’t going to rip Yamaguchi’s throat out. _I’m not an animal,_ he realized with sudden clarity. He’d been so afraid that his instincts would turn him into a monster, but this didn’t feel much worse than really wanting a second fresh-baked cookie. Sure, Kei _wanted_ to lean in and sink his teeth into smooth flesh, let the blood pool up--but just like any other inappropriate human urge, he chose not to. 

“Tsukki?”

Kei realized he was laughing, chin tucked down, body shaking. He was such a freak, and his life was totally fucked up, probably forever, but he wasn’t going to snap and try and eat his best friend right now. So he had that going for him. 

“I just… I had a really bad nightmare,” Kei said. “Sorry about your face.”

“It’s fine!” Yamaguchi said. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

They were so close, their knees pressed together, and Kei was so relieved and so tired. He looked up into Yamaguchi’s warm, brown eyes and then let his forehead drop down onto his shoulder. The other boy froze up a little bit, surely shocked by Kei’s unusual physicality. Kei’s heart panged bittersweetly with the knowledge that come Monday he’d still have to put distance between him and his best friend. 

The fact was, there was no way he’d be able to hide something this big from Yamaguchi if they had kept on like usual. 

But in this moment, in the middle of the night, in the middle of the woods, Kei took just this little bit of comfort. 

“Yeah… yeah, I’m alright,” Kei said. “Just… let me stay like this a moment.”

“Uh… of course, Tsukki.”

His name sounded soft in the confines of their tent and, after a moment’s hesitation, Kei felt Yamaguchi’s free arm curl around his shoulders. Kei let himself stay there, warmth seeping through their sleep shirts, transferring between their bodies. Kei stayed there, for just a while, breathing deep the smell of Yamaguchi’s skin and Yamaguchi’s blood, until his fangs receded and his frightened heartbeat returned to its normal pace. 

Eventually they separated, Yamaguchi quickly wiping his face with water from his waterbottle before settling back into their sleeping bags. Kei kept his unzipped and curled into the position they used to sleep in as children, back to back, spines pressed tightly together. 

Kei knew more nightmares would come, some at night and certainly more during his waking hours. For this one night, though, he let himself bask in this small relief, falling asleep to the feeling of Yamaguchi breathing.

☽ 〇 ☾

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Tsukishima gets ready to eat live feeder rats (the kind you feed to snakes). It happens "off screen" but it's talked about. 
> 
> Thank you for reading! You can follow me at my new fandom twitter [here](https://twitter.com/moonlumie) and if you liked the story I'd really appreciate a retweet of the [fic tweet](https://twitter.com/moonlumie/status/1290441270033289218?s=20) or a comment below!
> 
> Be back soon!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one got a lot longer than I expected so it'll probably push this story to 5 or 6 parts. Hope you all enjoy!

☽ 〇 ☾

The Mountain Conditioning Camp had given Tadashi hope. After Tsukishima’s nightmare, the two boys had slept close. Tadashi had woken up sprawled over Tsukishima’s chest which had resulted in stuttered apologies. Tsukki had rolled his eyes and complained about the drool on his shirt but Tadashi was pretty sure the blonde had a half-smile on his face as he got dressed. The following day was filled with a fun but grueling two-on-two tournament in a nearby field, a net haphazardly set up between two tall pine trees. 

They randomly drew teammates and then the teams were randomly organized into two divisions for the seeding round-robin and then the tournament. The sun was high by the time the round-robin games finished up. They all ate their bentos in a big circle on the grass while Yachi arranged the brackets based on the round-robin games. Sweat dripped down her brow as she made notes on the clipboard that was balanced on her knee, an onigiri in the other hand. A warm glow spread in Tadashi’s chest as he watched her work. They really were so lucky she joined the club.

“Okay!” she called as most of the boys finished up their meals. “Here are the matchups for the Godzilla division, and here are the ones for the Mothra division. Since the Mothra division has five teams, Team Narita-Matsui and Team Yamaguchi-Nakagawa will play an extra qualifying match before the first round.”

Yamaguchi scratched the back of his head good-naturedly. He and Nakagawa, a first-year with good receives but a bad vertical, hadn’t had much firepower and ended up fourth in their divisional round-robin. At least they’d done better than Narita and Matsui. Matsui had gotten so excited for his first twos games that he’d fired the ball into the trees multiple times and then wigged himself out so badly that he kept serving into the net. 

He’d started reminding Tadashi of a hilarious, if mildly concerning, mix between Dateko’s setter, Koganegawa, and Bokuto-san from Fukurodani. Tadashi was pretty sure he’d be a force once he learned to settle down a bit. 

The semifinal match in the Godzilla Division came down to Nishinoya-Hinata vs. Tsukishima-Kikuchi. Tadashi sat with his arms wrapped around his knees watching as Nishinoya got another point from an accidental net-over. He laughed uproariously as he and Hinata double hi-fived. Even though, as a libero, Nishinoya’s serves and spikes weren’t great, he could set decently and together he and Hinata had crazy ground defense. Kikuchi was looking more and more nervous as the points ticked up in favor of the other team. 

It came down one of Hinata’s evil, targeted spikes, which split the air right between the two middle-blockers. It whizzed right past Kikuchi’s ear to thunk against the grass just on the inside of the line. Celebrations erupted on the other side of the net. 

Kikuchi’s lip quivered on his pale face as he turned to Tsukishima. 

“I’m… I’m sorry Tsukishima-san. I—” 

A year ago, Tadashi wouldn’t have been surprised to hear Tsukishima tell him it didn’t matter. It was just a practice game. To be honest, a year ago, there was probably no way that Tsukishima would have even been in the semi-finals. He would have gotten annoyed and tired by the time the round-robin games ended and would have started giving up in the first round of the tournament. 

But right now Tsukishima was gasping for breath himself, using his practice jersey to wipe the sweat off his face. 

“You don’t have to apologize,” is what Tsukki does say. “We came as far as we could. Plus, you weren’t bad today. Your blocks have gotten a lot better.” 

It wasn’t said particularly warmly, and Tsukishima was already turning away to get water and a towel, but Tadashi couldn’t help but smile at the way Kikuchi looked like he was close to tears. The first year held his head up high and proud as he left their makeshift court. 

Tsukishima eventually came to sit next to Tadashi to watch the final match between Tanaka-Kageyama and Hinata-Nishinoya.

“You played great today, Tsukki,” Tadashi said with a warm smile.

“I’m exhausted,” was Tsukishima’s response, but it didn’t diminish the warm glow that carried Tadashi through the final match, the ride back to school, and all the way home. 

Tadashi woke up full of optimism on Monday morning. He’s not sure what Tsukishima’s avoidance had stemmed from through the first part of the school year, but surely after how he’d been on the mountain, things would go back to normal now.

“Tsukki, do you want to come by for dinner? My mom asked me to invite you,” Tadashi says on their way home from practice on Monday. 

“Sorry, I promised my mom I’d be home for dinner,” Tsukishima said.

“Tsukki, do you want to come over today or tomorrow to work on our reports for Japanese? It’s due at the end of the week,” Tadashi said the next morning on their way to school.

“Sorry, I can’t. Akiteru is in town and promised I’d practice with some of his college friends,” Tsukishima said. 

On Wednesday evening, Tadashi ran into Akiteru at the convenience store by their house.

“Hey! Tadashi-kun!” 

Tadashi looked up from the snack section to see Tsukki’s older brother heading his way. He had his usual easy smile spread across his face, the one that made him so different from his brother. 

“Ah, hello, Akiteru-san.”

“How have you been? It feels like forever since I’ve seen you,” Akiteru said.

“Oh, um, I’ve been good. How are you? How has the practice with Tsukki been?” Tadashi asked.

Akiteru’s brow furrowed.

“Practice?” he asked, and already the store seemed to drift out of Tadashi’s perception in response to the confusion on Akiteru’s face. “What practice? I haven’t practiced with Tsukki in a while. I’m just in town for the evening for dad’s birthday.”

There was a roaring in Tadashi’s ears as the words sunk in. _He lied._ Tadashi knew that Tsukishima had been avoiding hanging out with him. He knew deep down that Tsukki couldn’t have just suddenly gotten this busy. That if he wanted to spend time with Tadashi, he’d find the time. They always had. He knew that, deep down, and yet he’d believed Tsukki at face value. Because if he didn’t—if he _didn’t—_

It felt like iron bars were constricting around Tadashi’s chest. The thoughts and feelings that he’d been keeping locked up reared their heads. He’d been desperately trying to keep the box in his head shut tight, even as the ugly things beat against the lid, gaining strength every time Tsukishima had turned him down.

“Tadashi?” Akiteru’s voice sounded far away.

“Sorry. I must have misunderstood something Tsukki said the other day. Sorry, I have to go,” Tadashi said, turning away. “Sorry.”

He didn’t know if Akiteru said anything else. He walked home, quickly, in a daze. Tadashi was thankful his parents were working late. It meant he could immediately head up to his room, crawl into bed, pull the covers over his head, and have an absolute breakdown. 

Tadashi was less of a wreck by morning but he still didn’t feel ready to face Tsukishima one on one. He shot off a text as he left the house early, claiming he had to set up a few things before practice. He used his key to let himself into the gym, a privilege of the vice-captain, and set the net up methodically. He rolled the balls out of the storage room, picked one up, and fired it over the net.

He did it again, and again, until the ball bin was empty. Then he gathered them all back up, and emptied the bin again. 

The dark sky outside was just beginning to change color when the gym door slid open.

“Yamaguchi-kun?”

Yachi stood in the entryway, sliding on her gym shoes. Tadashi wiped his forehead and tried to compose himself.

“Ah, Yachi. Sorry. You must be here to let Hinata and Kageyama in?” Yamaguchi asked as she wandered in his direction. 

“Yeah,” she said. 

“You know, I don’t think them making you show up early every day was the plan when Takeda and Ennoshita banned either of them from having a copy of the key,” Yamaguchi said with a half smile. 

In the first week of their second year, Hinata and Kageyama had used their new upperclassmen status to leverage access to a key for the gym. It seemed logical since they practiced most, but they should have seen the backfire coming. It only took three days for Ennoshita to show up one morning and find them both asleep on the gym floor after practicing so late they never even went home. The team unanimously agreed that they couldn’t be trusted with their own copies and would have to have someone else let them in and send them out since they couldn’t self regulate. 

Yachi waved her hand dismissively.

“It’s fine. I like practicing with them. Plus, they wanted to start at five, and I got them to push it back all the way to six thirty,” she said, flashing a peace sign at Tadashi. 

She looked around at all the balls on the floor. She’d always been pretty perceptive after she got over her nerves, and had grown the confidence to act on her intuition over the past year. They were friends after all.

“What are you doing here so early? Don’t you usually walk to school with Tsukishima-kun?”

“I, uh, wanted to work on my spike serve,” Tadashi said, but he couldn’t meet her eyes and she tilted her head.

“Hmm, well it looks like you’ve done a lot of practicing already. Do you want to get a coffee with me before regular morning practice? I’m sure Hinata and Kageyama-kun can practice without me as long as the doors are open,” Yachi said.

“Um,” Tadashi says eloquently. “Okay.”

They grabbed two warm cans from the vending machine and found a low wall to sit on behind the second year classrooms. They were quiet for a moment. Tadashi took a long drink of his coffee. It was still cold enough that the hot drink made his breath puff out in small clouds. 

Yachi waited him out.

“Something happened with Tsukki,” is what he finally breathed out, making it real, making it whole and tangible. 

Everything started bubbling up.

“You know that we’ve been friends since elementary school?” he began in earnest. “I, um, used to get picked on. I was this shy, freckled little kid. I was really short for my age back then, too!”

“It does seem like you guys have known each other a long time,” Yachi prompted. “A little surprising though.”

Tadashi knew what she meant.

“He actually broke up some kids giving me a hard time once. I doubt it meant much to him then, but it meant so much to me. We happened to meet again when I joined the local volleyball club,” Tadashi explained. “He didn’t used to be so aloof you know. Tsukki was always cool but he… well in middle school some really disappointing things happened and for a while I think he was afraid of getting let down again. The team here helped a lot.”

Yachi smiled softly.

“You sure know a lot about him,” she said, and the smile on Tadashi’s face faded. 

“Well, I used to,” Tadashi murmured, and then looked down with a sad smile. “People tend to pay close attention to the people they like after all.”

To her credit, Yachi acted neither shocked nor like she knew the whole time. 

“So you _like_ Tsukishima-kun?”

“Yes,” Tadashi said simply, because anything else would be an outright lie. “It’s not exactly like _that_. It’s not like I was pining for him this whole time. I’m not dying to buy him chocolates and confess my romantic feelings.”

Tadashi actually laughed trying to imagine presenting Tsukki with a letter covered in heart stickers. 

“He’s just… my favorite person, you know?”

Yachi smiled softly but then tilted her head to the side in question as Tadashi’s face crumpled. 

“But… but I don’t think I’m his. I don’t think he even wants to be my friend anymore.”

Saying those words aloud was like cat claws raking down his chest. It hurt, and it left marks behind, impossible to ignore. 

“Oh, no, Yamaguchi-kun,” Yachi said, reaching out to put a hand on his arm. “What makes you say that?” 

“He lied to me, Yachi. And not just that. We used to spend so much time together, studying, eating lunch… our parents made extra food most of the time, assuming we’d stay for dinner at each others places. But ever since the new year, it seemed like he was always turning me down. At first I thought he was just busy or something… but yesterday I found out he outright lied to me when he said he couldn’t meet up,” Tadashi said it all in a rush. “If something was happening at home or with school he’d tell me, which I guess means… he just doesn’t want to see me.”

Yachi’s brow was furrowed. Yamaguchi rolled his coffee can between his palms. A chilled wind tossed his hair around and tickled his forehead as he let Yachi process his words. 

“Well that’s just… crap!” Yachi finally said, forcefully, making Tadashi’s eyebrows fly upwards. “What kind of person is friends with someone for… a decade! And just freezes them out like that!”

“Um…”

“Look, maybe something _is_ going on with him, or maybe he’s just a big jerk, but you should confront him!” she continued. “You were best friends! He at least owes you an explanation! And if he can’t or won’t give you a good answer, then you can start moving on. Because you deserve a better best friend than that, Yamaguchi-kun.”

Tadashi’s lip wobbled. He wasn’t sure if she was right, but it felt good to hear those words. All of the recent events with Tsukishima had dredged up a lot of his old insecurities, but he wasn’t the same kid he’d been in elementary school. Tadashi was the vice-captain of the Karasuno Boys Volleyball Club. He had friends, and a role to play. At the very least he had the right to confront Tsukki about his actions, about the lie. 

Tadashi nods slowly, scuffing a heel against the wall.

“You’re right. Thanks, Yachi. I might need a little bit of time to work my nerve up, but you’re right,” he said.

Yachi smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

“Of course. We’re friends, too, Yamaguchi-kun! And I don’t like people being mean to my friends!” she said, raising a fist dramatically towards the sunrise. “Anyway, why don’t you come up to the roof at lunch and eat with Hinata, Kageyama-kun, and I?”

☽ 〇 ☾

The week after the conditioning camp was a nightmare. As expected, Kei’s self indulgent break from avoiding Yamaguchi had its consequences. If he’d thought he’d gotten away with gently keeping his best friend at a distance, Yamaguchi’s renewed slew of invitations proved that he’d definitely been paying attention, and that he’d taken what happened on the mountain as a sign things were a go between them again. 

It hurt. It hurt because Kei wanted to say yes. It hurt because he knew that Yamaguchi was a soft-hearted person and it was probably hurting him, too. 

But what other options did Kei have?

If they kept on like they usually were, spending most of their free time together, then eventually it would all come out. Yamaguchi would find out by accident, or he’d force Kei to tell him. And then would come the horror. In the best case, Yamaguchi would be quietly terrified and learn to fear or hate Kei for being a monster. In the worst case, he’d freak out and Kei would end up exposed. He imagined government workers in black vans taking him away, locking him up like the freak he was. 

No, there were no good options, but the only one Kei could imagine bearing was the slow death of their close friendship. They would grow apart, and it would perhaps be the absolute worst part of this whole affair, but Yamaguchi wouldn’t hate and fear him. They’d be teammates, classmates. He’d wean himself off their friendship and be able to keep the memories untainted.

The sun was setting as Kei headed home alone. Yamaguchi said he was going to help Hinata and Kageyama with some math assignments in the club room after practice. _It’s starting_ , a bitter voice in his head whispered, like he wasn’t the one orchestrating the entire situation. 

Kei reached the bottom of the hill. The world was tinged orange by the sinking sun, which cast long shadows over the street. Kei paid no mind to the man leaning against a wall a few doors down from Sakanoshita, a cigarette hanging from his lips. He didn’t see the way that bloodshot eyes assessed him through the curling smoke. 

As usual, Kei had his headphones over his ears. He was already passing by when the man’s brow raised high and he dropped his cigarette, letting it burn on the pavement as he called out. 

“ _Hey!_ Kid!” 

A hand clamped down on Kei’s shoulder and he spun, finally seeing the man’s face now that it was a mere foot away from his own. The bottom fell out of Kei’s stomach and his hand came up to slap the man’s hand away from him. 

_“You,”_ Kei snarled. 

The man held his hands up in a placating gesture. His face was sallow and gaunt, his hair dirty and a little tangled. 

“Hold on! Hold on! I came to apologize and talk. Knew you were a kid and so thought you might go to school here. I was looking for you! The name’s Goto. Look, I know I ran off that night, but ya gotta understand how freaked out _I_ was—but I felt bad ‘n got to thinkin’—”

“You almost _murdered_ me,” Kei said, backing away, into an alley. The man, _Goto,_ followed. “Stay the hell away from me.”

“Hey! Don’t say murder! It was an accident!” he said, as if that made it fine.

The man seemed strange, manic, but what did Kei expect from a man who attacked and nearly killed him in the woods and then had the gall to show up for a chat. 

“Look, kid! I’d just gotten outta jail—friggin misunderstanding by the way—but I’d been in for weeks and weeks! They had me locked up alone; I was starving and lost control,” Goto said. Kei was frozen, not so much in fear, but in rage. How do you even process facing the person who _ruined_ your life? “Anyway, I got to thinkin’ that it’s pretty garbage of me as a sire to leave you all on your own. There used to be whole vampire families and covens, y’know? So I thought, hey, maybe this is _perfect_ , you ‘n me, we could start our own coven, the two of us! It would be so much easier to hunt with two…”

“You’re delusional,” Kei said. 

Goto looked ready to continue but then something in his face changed. His pupils constricted and he melted back into the shadows behind a dumpster, nose tipping up to the air. In that moment Tsukishima saw what he’d become if he let himself. A predator. 

Goto sniffed deeply and his eyes fluttered closed. Subtly, Kei inhaled, and dread filled his gut. 

“Yamaguchi…” he murmured in horror.

Sure enough, there he was, just a few yards away, on the sidewalk. He turned, locking eyes with Kei.

“Uh, Tsukki? What are you doing?” he said, face open in surprise at seeing Kei standing between a few dumpsters and garbage cans in an alley.

Good question. Kei forced himself not to look at the man who had so naturally hidden himself. It was dangerous here. Yamaguchi shouldn’t be here, and how would Kei explain?

“I… thought I heard a cat stuck in the dumpster but I think it was just a rat,” Kei said flatly. 

Yamaguchi opened his mouth to say something, but it seemed at that exact moment he remembered their current situation. Shutters fell behind his eyes and his mouth closed into a tight line. 

“Oh. Well… I’ll see you tomorrow then,” Yamaguchi said.

The indifference would have cut a lot deeper as Yamaguchi turned away if Kei wasn’t, you know, dealing with a manic vampire. He stood frozen until Yamaguchi was well out of site.

“Holy shit, that kid smells good,” Goto murmured, and something in Kei snapped. 

He fisted his hand in the man’s dirty jacket and shoved him back against the building. 

“What the _hell_ are you talking about,” Kei spat. 

“Hey, hey, hey!” the vampire said waving his arms around. “I’m sure he just smells like human to you but this is exactly why you need me, kid! You’re a baby vamp, they all smell the same, but blood’s like… it’s like wine! Everyone’s different and some are way better than others. Trust me, I can show you—”

Kei yanked him forward and then slammed him back again.

“I’m only going to say this once. You _ruined_ my life. Stay the hell away from me and my school,” Kei released him. “If you follow me, I’ll call the police.”

And with that, Kei turned and walked away, skin crawling.

He wondered if knowing that his attacker, his _sire_ , was nothing but a stupid, petty criminal would make the nightmares better or worse. 

☽ 〇 ☾

Tadashi walked home with his shoulders slumped up around his ears. He felt stupid. It had been weird to walk away like that. Just a few months ago he would have stopped and helped Tsukishima make sure that a cat wasn’t stuck. Gosh, what if there actually had been a cat stuck and Tsukki couldn’t find it?

Now he felt guilty, too.

But he just couldn’t really face or be alone with Tsukishima right now, knowing that his friend had lied to him like that. It wasn’t just the single lie either. If Tsukishima lied once, it meant he’d probably been lying the whole time. 

Yachi was right. He deserved answers. 

Tadashi held his head a little higher as he turned onto his own street. Things couldn’t go on like this. He knew Tsukishima’s parents worked late on Fridays, so he’d go over after practice tomorrow and _force_ Tsukishima to talk to him… or at least listen. 

Tomorrow, one way or another, things would change. Things would start to make sense again. 

Or Tadashi would begin the excruciating ordeal of letting go.

☽ 〇 ☾

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the sadness, I promise the shit starts finally popping off in the next chapter!
> 
> Let me know what you think! And if you liked the story I'd really appreciate a retweet of the fic tweet, [here](https://twitter.com/moonlumie/status/1292596047907192832?s=20)!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The comments at the end of the last chapter were so nice and inspiring I swear this chapter came out so easily. Hope you enjoy this one, too!

☽ 〇 ☾

The lines and colors of Tsukishima’s house are deeply familiar to Tadashi. He’s had popsicles on that stoop. He’d looked at stars off that balcony. He’d helped bury Tsukishima’s childhood pet hamster behind that set of bushes. 

After Friday’s afternoon practice, Tadashi had said goodbye to Tsukishima without protest, but went home only long enough to change out of his school uniform before leaving again. He followed the most direct path from his house to lead him here, to Tsukki’s home. Tadashi tucked his hands deeper into the kangaroo pouch of his hoodie as he cemented his resolve and walked up the well-worn steps. 

He knocked without hesitation. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Tadashi saw the blinds on Tsukishima’s window shift. Tadashi gritted his teeth as he waited… and waited. The anger, which was so rarely stirred in Tadashi, ignited.

“I know you’re in there, Tsukki! I just want to talk!” Tadashi yelled vaguely at the door, vaguely at the window. 

There was nothing for another moment. 

Furious, Tadashi stomped over and put a foot on one of the planters next to the path, giving himself a boost to grab onto the eve of the house. He began to try and pull himself up onto the roof with the goal of banging directly on Tsukishima’s window. It was… more difficult than he’d expected. Tadashi slipped, foot kicking out against the side of the house to stop himself from falling onto his ass.

“Yamaguchi. What are you doing?” he heard a voice behind him.

Tadashi looked over his shoulder to see Tsukishima standing in the doorway, a deadpan expression on his face. Tadashi’s face flamed as he realized the image he presented, and he awkwardly tried to get himself back onto solid ground. 

“Wh-what are _you_ doing?” Tadashi replied once he’d regained stable footing.

This wasn’t going like he’d hoped it would. Tsukishima narrowed his eyes.

“Sorry, Yamaguchi, but I have to—”

The fire was back. Yamaguchi stomped up to Tsukishima and grabbed his shirt, knocking him back through the doorway a few steps.

“Stop _lying_ to me,” Tadashi snarled. 

The veneer of calm cracked on Tsukishima’s face as his brows rose. He quickly pulled them back down and annoyance blocked any view Tadashi might have to what was really going on in the boy’s head. 

“I don’t know what you’re—”

Tadashi shook him.

“I ran into Akiteru!” Tadashi’s voice cracked. “What else have you been lying about? Have you been lying all year? I’m not _stupid_ , Tsukki!” 

Tadashi pushed him back a foot or so with those final words. He balled his hands into fists, staring his best friend down. He’d meant to do this more calmly, but all the hurt bubbled up in the form of fury. Tsukishima’s lips were slightly parted in shock. Akiteru must not have mentioned seeing Tadashi, or at least hadn’t mentioned what they talked about. 

Tadashi waited for a response. 

Tsukishima’s gaze dropped to the floor, and Tadashi inhaled in surprise. He’d had no idea what to expect when he confronted Tsukki, but he definitely hadn’t expected this. What was going _on?_

“Why did you lie to me?!” Tadashi said, baffled by Tsukishima totally shutting down. 

Tadashi didn’t know what to make of it. He waited for him to say something, anything. 

He didn’t.

“Say something!”

Tadashi felt his eyes start to prickle and burn.

_“Tsukki!”_

The taller boy looked frozen. He didn’t move. He didn’t look. He didn’t speak. The impotent rage roiling in Tadashi’s gut slowed, stilled. 

_If he can’t or won’t give you a good answer, then you can start moving on. Because you deserve a better best friend than that, Yamaguchi-kun._

Yachi’s words rung in Tadashi’s mind. He didn’t _want_ a better best friend. He didn’t feel like he deserved more, didn’t want anyone other than Tsukki, but—

Tadashi’s shoulders slumped. He couldn’t force Tsukishima to explain himself. He couldn’t force him to be Tadashi’s best friend if that’s not what he wanted, if he wouldn’t even explain his lies. Tadashi looked down at the shoes neatly lined up in the genkan. He remembered how small their shoes used to look next to Tsukishima’s father’s. 

“Tsukki, you know, I actually… used to think this was coming one day, when I was younger,” Tadashi murmured, looking at his palms, remembering the way he used to clench them anxiously whenever he’d ask Tsukishima to come to play, expecting him to say no. “I pushed all those fears down and thought I may have gotten rid of them entirely…”

Tadashi’s heartbeat slowed, as the truth finally sunk in. This was the last thing he had to say, then he could go break down or call Yachi or…

“But I guess there was always a fear in the back of my mind… that one day you’d decide I’m lame after all.”

Tadashi took a deep breath, filling his lungs to the brim with the painfully familiar smell of the Tsukishima household. Then he exhaled, turned, and walked out the door. 

☽ 〇 ☾

Kei heard but didn’t see Yamaguchi leave. His eyes still bore holes into the tile of the genkan. He should have known he’d get caught in some lie at some point and should have had a back up plan ready, come up with _something_ to say. But Kei had locked up, had no idea what to say. Yamaguchi’s words rattled through his head. 

_One day you’d decide I’m lame after all._

It hurt. Why did that hurt?

Ah, probably because Yamaguchi was his only close friend. Probably because they’d been best friends for years. It probably hurt because the person that Kei liked most in the world just admitted to never really believing in him, deep down. Kei really was a big disappointment, huh? 

The floor blurred.

Oh, he’s crying, Kei realized. The tears slipped off his eyelashes before getting caught by his glasses, making it impossible to see through them. 

Well, Kei wouldn’t have to lie anymore. At least there was that. Tadashi definitely wouldn’t be asking him to hang out any time in the near future. 

Kei sat down on the step roughly. He pushed the base of his palms up under his glasses gritting his teeth so hard it hurt. He dug knuckles into his closed eyes. 

_It hurt._

Kei wasn’t sure how long he sat there, but when he pulled his hands away from his face, his eyes were dry and the hallway was cold from how long the door had been open. He tried to blank out his mind, to clear it of all the feelings that he didn’t know how to handle. Kei wanted to call Yamaguchi, ask where he was, explain everything. 

Maybe Kei could tell him. Anything had to be better than this ugly, excruciating feeling welling up in his chest—men in black vans be damned. 

But no… that’s not how real life worked. Kei’s life permanently changed that night and he had to accept and deal with that. Time would dull the pain and maybe he would come up with a way to apologize to Yamaguchi in time, after they graduate, when they’re in different cities, going to different schools. Maybe they could build a new sort of friendship then, one that’s safer and less meaningful.

Kei hated the idea.

But he didn’t have any better ones. 

Kei stood up slowly, wiped his glasses on his shirt, and checked the time on his phone. The pet store would still be open for another hour and the permanent headache that nestled in the base of Kei’s skull was flaring up. 

This was his new normal. This is what he had to do. 

☽ 〇 ☾

Tadashi didn’t go home after leaving Tsukishima’s house. His parents were at home and if Tadashiwas there they’d ask him what was wrong and he wasn’t ready to explain. He honestly didn’t know how to. Maybe Hinata would let him spend the night, though he’d probably have to walk or catch a bus over the mountain. 

It was as Tadashi rounded a corner onto a less familiar street that he heard something behind him, like footsteps. He turned around but saw nothing other than the sharp shadows cast by the nearly set sun. The streetlights would be coming on soon. Tadashi kept walking. 

He turned around another corner, still not heading in any particular direction. He pulled out his phone to text Yachi. 

> **To: Yachi**
> 
> >> I talked to Tsukki. It didn’t go well. 
> 
> **From: Yachi**
> 
> >> :((((((
> 
> >> Do you want to come over to mine? My mom is out of town for business. We can eat lots of ice cream. 
> 
> **To: Yachi**
> 
> >> Yeah, thanks. I’m just going to walk a bit to clear my head. I’ll text when I’m on my way over?
> 
> **From: Yachi**
> 
> >> Of course! Sounds good! (っಠ‿ಠ)っ

When Tadashi looked up from his phone he didn’t recognize the street he was on. He looked over his shoulder but once again saw nothing. He wandered over to the nearest street signs and took a mental inventory. He was just a couple blocks outside of their neighborhood, towards town. 

A low moan from a narrow alleyway between two office buildings across the street caught Tadashi’s attention. 

_“Help…!”_

Tadashi’s brows raised and he jogged across the street to look into the alley. The shadows made it hard to see much. He narrowed his eyes, thinking he saw movement from behind a garbage can. 

_“Please, someone help…”_

Tadashi definitely heard that! He jogged into the alley, kneeling in front of what he now realized was a person, not a bag of garbage next to a trashcan. It was a man, curled in on themselves, moaning lowly. 

“Hello? Are you hurt?” Tadashi asked, looking for the source of the man’s distress. 

It was difficult to make out his features clearly but he looked like he had a shaggy head of hair and was clutching his stomach. He tipped his head back to reveal a thin face and it was in that moment that Tadashi suspected something was very wrong. Alarm bells rung in his head.

“Sir…?”

_“You—”_

There was something weird about the man’s mouth. 

_“You really do smell delicious.”_

Time slowed. Fangs. There were fangs in the man’s mouth. 

It’s the last thing that Tadashi saw before he was shoved upwards, backwards, before his lungs were forcefully emptied by their collision with the building on the opposite side of the alley. 

They were the last things he saw before a hand clamped over his mouth and those fangs pierced his neck. 

☽ 〇 ☾

Kei walked towards town with his headphones on. He kept his eyes low so he didn’t trip in the dim light, so he didn’t risk any passerby seeing the chaos in his eyes. He would have denied it if asked, but the music filling up ears was less than uplifting. It might even qualify as a little bit emo.

He might have to make a dedicated playlist to get through the week. 

Kei turned the corner towards the shops and took a deep breath. He drew the air deep into his lungs, in through his nose—and froze.

Blood. Kei smelled blood. 

And it smelled horrifically familiar. 

_No…! No!_

Kei was already running, his headphones now bouncing around his neck. Maybe Yamaguchi tripped on his way home. Maybe he got a natural nosebleed. He used to get them when he was younger. 

No. Kei knew, somehow, that something horrible had happened. He wasn’t sure how but maybe it was something in the smell, something the vampire recognized that the human didn’t, something that reeked like fear.

Kei sprinted down the road calling out for Yamaguchi. 

_Please, please, be ok._

The smell got stronger, and stronger. The street lights flickered on. They flickered on, just as Kei stopped at the mouth of an alley. They flickered on to illuminate an image that made Kei’s heart freeze in his chest. 

Eyes, terrified and wild, locked with Kei’s.

Yamaguchi was pinned up against a cement wall, partially obscured by a large body and a shaggy head of hair. A dirty hand was clamped over his mouth and tear tracks ran down his cheeks. Kei could see bloodstains on his hoodie. 

“Get— _get away from him!”_ Kei snarled, charging into the alley.

It was only as the vampire pulled away that Kei realized it was Goto. Of course it was, but Kei barely processed it, as Yamaguchi began to collapse. Kei caught him just before he hit the pavement. Kei’s mind was tearing in two, unsure whether or not to focus on the vampire that was skittering away from them or on Yamaguchi in his arms. 

“Oh shit!” Goto said. 

_“Tsukki!”_ Yamaguchi sobbed out, terrified.

Yamaguchi struggled limply, as if he were trying to get up. Kei’s eyes raked over him, assessing, and pressed his palm over his bleeding neck. _Oh, thank god._ It wasn’t bleeding too badly. It was just a normal bite. _He’s limp from the venom, not the bloodloss, thank god. Oh, thank god._

“It’s ok,” Kei said, trying to calm Yamaguchi’s struggling. “Yamaguchi, it’s okay. I’ve got you.”

“Tsukki, _Tsukki,_ you gotta run. He’s not—”

Kei curled Yamaguchi tighter into his arms, protectively tucking him into his chest. 

“He’s not going to hurt you anymore. I’ve got you. Close your eyes, Yamaguchi,” Kei said. 

Kei didn’t wait to see if Yamaguchi actually did so before pulling his hand away from Yamaguchi’s neck. The scent of blood had made Kei’s fangs drop the moment he’d turned onto the street. It was easy to drag his own sharp teeth across his palm, ripping it open. The taste of Yamaguchi’s blood leaked across Kei’s tongue in the process. Ironic, that he should finally taste human blood now, in this way. 

It was the best thing he’d ever tasted in his whole life.

It didn’t slow him.

Kei pressed his now bleeding palm back to the shallow wound on Yamaguchi’s neck. _Vampire power number four of four, healing blood._ Time to put that to the test, Kei thought. Yamaguchi’s eyes were so wide.

“Tsukki, you have to—”

Kei looked up at Goto, who was just getting back to his feet, recovering from his shock at being interrupted. 

“What are you doing here?” Kei said furiously. “I told you—”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I know!” Goto said, wiping his lips. “This kid just smelled _so_ good I had to get a taste before I left town. I actually didn’t even take too much before you got here if you want some—”

“Shut _up!”_ Kei snarled and Goto jumped, taking another step back.

“What? Got a weird thing about people you know? Classmates? Look if you’re not going to feed then you better let me thrall him before the venom fades or I won’t be able to make him forget—”

“You’re not coming _anywhere near him,”_ Kei said, curling even further over Yamaguchi’s body.

“Tsukki...?!”

Kei looked down and checked under his palm. The bleeding from both of them seemed to have stopped and Yamaguchi’s eyes were starting to look a little clearer. He’d stopped struggling to stand up but now his hand was fisted, stronger and stronger, into Kei’s jacket. 

“You’re going to be ok, Yamaguchi,” Kei said again, holding his eyes, trying to beg for every ounce of trust from Yamaguchi that he didn’t deserve. 

“Look, kid, we’re gonna be real screwed here if you don’t let me thrall him. He’ll have to get bitten again or he’ll remember—”

Kei’s gaze flashed upwards again and he breathed heavily through his open mouth, trying not to let the smell of the blood in the air distract him.

“Quiet,” Tsukishima said, cold fury filling him up now that he knew Yamaguchi would be okay, physically at least. “I don’t know how vampires usually work and I don’t care. If you _ever_ try and feed on Yamaguchi—if I ever see you in this _city_ again, I swear to god I will make it my only goal in life to expose you even if it takes me exposing myself in the process. I will do _whatever_ it takes to ruin you. Do I make myself clear?”

Goto stared at Kei, his sunken eyes working through Kei’s words. Whatever he saw must have convinced him that Kei was serious, which was good, because Kei absolutely was. He didn’t care if he had to take photographs of his own fangs and send them to the nightly news, he would end this man. 

Goto raised his hands in surrender.

“Alright. Alright. I get it,” he said, taking a few steps backward. “I’ve been thinking of leaving Japan anyway. Too easy to attract attention here. You win. You’re on your own, especially with that.”

Goto looked down at Yamaguchi in Kei’s arms, who was staring straight up at Kei, at his exposed fangs. Goto wiped his mouth. It smeared Yamaguchi’s blood around and Kei snarled against his will. The man turned away. Kei watched him go. There was no way of knowing for sure if Goto would really listen, but if there was one thing that Kei had learned about the vampire it was that he was a coward. His animal instincts were strong. Kei was pretty sure he just made this whole prefecture, maybe this country, more trouble than it was worth. 

Kei and Yamaguchi didn’t move for long moments after Goto disappeared from sight, no sound but their heartbeats, no movement except for the clouds rolling over the face of the moon above. 

“Tsukki… Tsukki, your mouth… there were…” Yamaguchi finally said, his voice hushed and horrified. 

Kei squeezed his eyes shut so he didn’t have to see the expression as he shifted Yamaguchi’s body away from his own, leaning the shorter boy up against the wall. He crouched in front of his best friend, steeling himself. 

“Yamaguchi, I can make you forget this,” Kei said, even though the idea of having to figure out the thrall on his own was terrifying. “I might have to bite you, but I won’t drink. I’ll heal you after. I’ve never done it before but—”

“Tsukki… are you…? The same as...”

Kei’s lip curled and he looked down and to the side, away even further from the disgust he’d surely find on Yamaguchi’s face. He didn’t want this. He hadn’t wanted this.

“I’m _not_ the same as him,” Kei growled. “I don’t drink from people. But… yes. I’m the same type of…”

Kei couldn't make himself say the words: vampire, monster, creature. Yamaguchi’s hand came up to grip the wrist of the hand that Kei still had resting on his shoulder to steady him. 

“Tsukki, have you always been—”

“No.”

“When…? _How…_?”

Kei still couldn’t meet Yamaguchi’s eyes but he supposed there was no point in lying now. Yamaguchi would either have the whole truth or Kei would make him forget everything in a few minutes. Or, well, he’d try to, if it worked. 

“Over the break. That bastard who attacked you… it was him,” Kei said. “He… turned me into this.”

“Oh my god, when you got sick…” Yamaguchi breathed and Kei nodded. “What happened? Am I going to…?”

“No. You’ll be fine. You don’t turn from being drunk from. He ambushed me in the greenbelt. Apparently he was hungrier than usual, and he messed up. I think he hit my jugular, and I was dying,” Kei said without inflection, continuing on even past Yamaguchi’s gasped _Tsukki_. “He force-fed me some of his own blood to save himself from being an outright murderer. When I woke up I was like this.”

“Tsukki, oh my god…” 

Kei sighed heavily again. They should really be getting out of here, getting Yamaguchi home. He wondered if they should try the thrall now or if they should get Yamaguchi somewhere that would be less weird to be missing memories from. 

“Anyway, I’m sorry, but for the memory thing to work we have to get a some venom in you again, don’t worry it’s harmless after a few minutes like you felt. Then you won’t have to worry about any of this. I can take it away. I’ll carry you home after and tell your parents you got sick—”

Suddenly there was a sharp chop to the top of Kei’s head.

“Don’t be stupid! I’m not letting you make me forget this… you idiot!” Yamaguchi was nearly shouting.

Kei’s head snapped up in shock, finally meeting Yamaguchi’s gaze. He hadn’t realized how long he’d been avoiding looking at him, afraid of what he’d see on Yamaguchi’s face. Well there was no soft moment as Kei’s glasses sat askew on his face and his eyebrows tried to meet his hairline. Over the throbbing in his head and through his tiled glasses, right now Yamaguchi looked… upset, but not horrified, not disgusted. 

“Why didn’t you tell me, Tsukki?” Yamaguchi asked, imploring. 

Kei blinked at him.

“Tell you? How could I tell you?” Kei murmured, dumfounded. 

Yamaguchi’s brow knit and he fisted his hand into the sleeve of Kei’s coat. His face was pale and stained with tears. His sweater was a lost cause and there was dried blood congealed up the side of his neck. His lips wobbled.

“But… how could you have kept it all to yourself,” Yamaguchi said, words shocking Kei right to his core. “Tsukki, I can’t even imagine how horrible that must have been, to have endured everything all alone.”

It was the unexpected words in the wake of all this chaos, in the wake of Yamaguchi’s own terrifying experience, that slipped right under Kei’s armor and released something inside his chest. Yamaguchi didn’t look away, and Kei couldn’t. His vision blurred and something hot and wet started to slide down Kei’s cheeks as the pain began to drain out of his tired body. 

For the second time that day Yamaguchi brought Kei to tears, but, this time, Kei had never received a greater gift.

☽ 〇 ☾

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading and I promise the next chapter will be the absolute softest to make up for all the pain I've put these boys through!
> 
> Let me know what you think and if you liked the story I'd really appreciate a retweet of the fic tweet, [here](https://twitter.com/moonlumie/status/1293678886820048896?s=20)!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First: please check out this AMAZING art collection that @gypsypendragon on twitter did [here](https://twitter.com/gypsypendragon/status/1296025596573577217)! It's so, so, so neat (mostly of chapter 4!). 
> 
> Second: I hope you enjoy the new chapter!

☽ 〇 ☾

“Can I, uh, come home with you?” Tadashi asked when the dust settled. “Your parents work late and I… don’t think I can go home like this…” 

Tsukishima had quickly wiped away the tears on his face after they came. Tadashi knew him well enough not to say anything about them. He just smiled gently until Tsukki took a deep breath and stood up. 

“Of course. My parents are actually staying in the city overnight,” Tsukishima said and helped Tadashi up, though he wobbled and almost fell down again. “Here, hold on.”

Tsukishima carried Tadashi home, riding on his back like they did when they were little kids. 

Tadashi’s head still felt fuzzy, and it helped him dissociate the necessary amount to start taking this in stride. He’d process it and maybe have another handful of freakouts later. For now he just let himself ask any question that popped into his head. It was a good distraction from the warmth of Tsukki’s body where it was pressed against him. He could smell Tsukishima’s shampoo. 

He supposed there were other, more important things he should be paying attention to.

“Are you immortal?” 

“No,” Tsukishima said. “Goto, that bastard who bit you, said we live basically just as long as humans, but with much more annoying dietary needs.”

“So… you drink blood then?” Tadashi asked, too out of it to realize that was a pretty loaded question. “Who have you—oh, or do you like, steal blood bags from the hospital?”

He could _feel_ Tsukishima roll his eyes even though he couldn’t see it. 

“I drink blood, but never human blood. I don’t _steal_ blood bags from the hospital. This isn’t a TV show, Yamaguchi. I’d get caught and arrested,” Tsukishima said.

Huh, that made sense. 

“Well what blood do you drink then?”

“Animal blood.”

“Animal blood? Not like… cats or dogs right?” Tadashi blurted, feeling a bit sick. 

Tsukishima snorted.

“No. Mostly chicken blood from the butcher’s and… like, when it has to be live or fresher…” Tsukishima got quieter as he went on, the last words said so low that Tadashi wouldn’t have heard them if his ear wasn’t six inches from Tsukishima’s lips. “Then… it’s feeder rats.”

Tadashi was quiet as they passed from one pool of streetlight to the next. Tsukishima spoke up before Tadashi thought of what to say next. 

“Does that disgust you, Yamaguchi?” he asked, carefully but unsuccessfully neutral.

Tadashi squeezed his arms tighter around Tsukishima’s neck. If it made Tadashi a little squeamish to think about, then he can’t imagine how bad it must have been for Tsukki.

“No! Well, it’s not exactly a nice thought, but you did what you had to do to survive, Tsukki,” Yamaguchi said with as much fervor as he could build up. “And you haven’t hurt anyone. You’re… really strong.” 

Tadashi smiled softly as he finished, feeling the truth in his words. Tsukishima was quiet for a beat too long to come off smooth when he finally spoke.

“Shut up, Yamaguchi.”

“Sorry, Tsukki,” Tadashi breathed, letting his eyes close and his head rest more fully against Tsukishima’s neck.

Almost home now. 

☽ 〇 ☾

Yamaguchi seemed to be close to sleep by the time Kei stood in front of his front door, trying to unlock it without dropping his limp friend. He got them in the door and then gently jostled Yamaguchi into awareness.

“Oh, we’re here,” he said.

“Yeah, I’m going to try putting you down, ok?”

Kei let him down, keeping his hands on Tadashi to make sure he didn’t fall down as he toed his shoes off in the genkan. Kei wasn’t sure how much of Tadashi’s exhaustion and unsteadiness was due to the venom or the fallout from the attack itself. The flood and then absence of adrenaline could have left his body hollowed out and woozy, but Kei had no idea what exactly the after effects of the venom is when it wasn’t followed by a healthy meal of super-healing vampire blood.

Kei pushed the thought from his head for now. 

“Do you want to take a shower?” Kei asked him and Yamaguchi’s head snapped up from where he’d been zoning out, staring at the floor.

He chuckled softly. 

“I think I’d just fall down,” Yamaguchi said, which was a good point considering how unsteady he still looked on his feet. 

It sure would be ironic if Yamaguchi made it through a vampire attack and then died from cracking his head against the floor of Kei’s shower. The thought was morbid and a good sign that some part of Kei was still definitely freaking out. 

Instead of thinking too hard about that, Kei helped Yamaguchi down the hallway towards the bathroom. He grabbed some spare towels and washcloths, laying one over the toilet and telling Yamaguchi to take his shirt and pants off while keeping his eyes determinedly anywhere else in the room. 

He didn’t look to see if Yamaguchi followed his instructions until the water was flowing hot from the sink. When Kei looked, Tadashi was sitting there, down to his boxers. The flush on Kei’s cheeks would be worse if not for the blood smeared over Yamaguchi’s neck and shoulder, rusty streaks down his collarbones. That was sobering to say the least.

Yamaguchi reached out for the rag that Kei was wetting, but Kei ignored that and moved to stand in front of him. 

“I got it,” he mumbled.

Yamaguchi’s eyes went wide, but he didn’t protest. He let his hands fall into his lap and Kei stepped a little closer. He laid one hand on Yamaguchi’s clean shoulder, and drew the rag slowly but firmly over Yamaguchi’s neck. His breathing stuttered as Kei continued. 

He paused after a moment, going back to the sink to rinse and rewarm the rag. When Kei returned, Yamaguchi’s eyes looked watery, and when Kei pressed the rag to his skin again, a sudden sob loosed from his throat. 

Kei pressed his lips together and focused on his task, removing the horrible evidence from Yamaguchi’s skin. He wiped, and rinsed, and scrubbed until the only red on Yamaguchi’s skin was the rims of his eyes. Kei took a new rag in hand and began to wipe Yamaguchi’s face. He wanted to say something, but he was afraid that he’d shed a tear or two himself if he opened his mouth.

It was just… a lot to deal with all at once. 

When they were done and Yamaguchi’s face was clear, Kei wrapped a towel around his shoulders and led him upstairs. He pulled a spare sweater and some sweatpants from his drawers and handed them to Yamaguchi, who dutifully put them on. 

Kei swallowed around the strange, raw tension in the air. They’d been best friends for so long. It was as if their separation followed by their sudden, sharp reunification had knocked some things into the sunlight that had previously been easy to miss. It was difficult to notice what’s growing inside when it grows so slowly and surely. It was easy to miss all the little tendrils and vines that had risen up when you're growing at the same pace. Now it was like he’d returned home after a trip abroad and finally realized how large the plants in his garden had grown, noticed blooms on plants that he hadn’t even known could flower when they’d been planted. 

Kei took a deep breath. 

“My parents left some dinner for me. I’ll go grab it and we can split it,” Kei said and hightailed it out of the room, desperate for just a moment to clear his head. 

☽ 〇 ☾

When Tsukishima left the room in a rush, Tadashi slowly lowered himself to the floor. He was finally starting to feel a bit more like himself. He leaned his head back against Tsukishima’s bed and took a deep breath of the familiar smells. He let them out with a nearly contented sigh.

Sometimes a good cry really does the soul good. 

After a moment of silence, Tadashi heard buzzing. He looked around before realizing the source came from his pants, folded by the door. When he crawled over and pulled his phone out of the pocket he saw Yachi’s name on the caller ID.

“Shoot!” he muttered and picked up the call. “Hello?”

He probably should have thought of what he was going to say before he picked up.

“Yamaguchi-kun? Are you still coming over? I hadn’t heard from you and you didn’t reply to my last few texts so I got a bit worried,” her voice was a comforting break from this strange little bubble he and Tsukishima had found themselves in, a reminder that the outside world, school, and volleyball all still existed.

“Oh my god, I’m _so_ sorry, Yachi,” Tadashi apologized. “I—um—well… oh! Tsukki actually came and found me when I was walking and we, um, cleared things up. I’m over at his place now.”

“Oh! Really? What was his excuse for ignoring you for so long?!” Yachi asked loyally and Tadashi could see her hand on her hip in his mind’s eye. 

Tsukishima reappeared in the doorway with a tray of food in time to see Yamaguchi’s dazed, deer-in-the-headlights expression. Tadashi could be vague, but he felt really guilty about all the negative assumptions he and Yachi had made about Tsukki while he was going through something actually horrible and life changing. He wanted to make sure Tsukishima was fully absolved somehow. 

“Um, I can’t say too much since it’s, um, personal… but basically he had, um, a health scare and he wasn’t sure how to deal with it,” Tadashi said, shrinking down a little bit at the glare Tsukishima was sending in his direction now. “But it’s ok now, so don’t worry about it, ok?!”

“Oh, wow. I guess there really was a reason. I won’t pry anymore, but let him know I’m happy he’s alright and that you two are ok?” Yachi said.

“Yeah,” Tadashi breathed, trying not to meet the eye-daggers Tsukishima was still flinging at him as he set the food down between them. “I’ll text you tomorrow, ok?”

“Of course!” Yachi said. “Bye, Yamaguchi-kun.”

“Bye!”

He hung up the phone, glad Yachi had the sense not to ask about any of the other things they’d discussed while he was at Tsukki’s. Speaking of, Tadashi chanced a look up at his best friend. 

“A health scare?” Tsukishima said with a bit of a bite.

“Well, you were acting different and people noticed,” Tadashi shrugged, not that apologetic. “I mean… some people might say that—well, what happened to you was a health scare… in a way…”

Tadashi wanted to keep things light, so he quickly pushed away from the terrifying realization that his best friend had apparently almost died fairly recently. He took a couple steading breaths. 

Tsukishima rolled his eyes.

“Whatever,” he murmured, and then snorted, so Tadashi figured he was off the hook. 

They ate mostly in silence, knees bumping together. The brief interlude between Tadashi’s adrenaline drop and real exhaustion came to a close as Tadashi’s head began to bob. Tsukishima collected their dishes and brought them downstairs when Tadashi dropped his chopsticks for a second time. He came back with the spare futon and Tadashi blamed his tired state for his lack of usual filter. 

“Hey, can we, um, share the bed? Like when we were kids?” 

Tadashi really hated the idea of sleeping alone on the floor right now. 

Tsukishima paused just long enough for Tadashi to start coming up with ways to hand-wave his request, but then Tsukishima went back to the closet with the futon. He turned on the lamp that sat the side table and flipped the overhead light off. 

“Come on then,” Tsukki said, stripping down to a tee-shirt and boxer shorts.

Tadashi followed suit and crawled into bed first. Tsukishima always claimed the open side of the bed, since they were little. It was a tight squeeze for two 180-centimeter-plus bodies, very plus on Tsukishima’s end. Neither one of them spoke. Tsukki leaned over and turned off the lamp, making the glow-in-the-dark stars they’d stuck to the ceiling on Tsukki’s tenth birthday flare to life. 

Tsukishima had stood on the ladder while Tadashi carefully studied the constellations in the _Planets & Stars Encyclopedia _that Tsukki had received as a gift. For the more complicated constellations, Tadashi had to stand on the bed, with his arms held aloft, trying to show Tsukishima the pictures. They’d wanted it to be accurate after all. 

Just like they had that night, Tadashi and Tsukishima curled up back to back. Tadashi thought about the last time they’d laid down like this, in a little tent in the mountains. It all made so much more sense in retrospect, the nightmares, Tsukki’s strange behavior. 

“Thank you for saving me today, for stopping him,” Tadashi said quietly into the dark. “It was… terrifying, but… I’m glad it happened, if that’s what it took for me to find out what happened to you. So you don’t have to deal with alone anymore, Tsukki.”

Tadashi felt Tsukishima inhale sharply. 

More than anything, Tadashi wished this had never happened to Tsukki, but it _had,_ and so Tadashi was glad he knew. He was glad that Tsukki wouldn’t have to bear the burden alone. Tadashi wouldn’t let him. 

He felt a pang in his heart when he realized what fear and pain must have driven Tsukishima to keep it to himself in the first place. He understood, but it still made him sad. Tadashi would do better, so Tsukishima didn’t feel like he had to hide anything from him. He wanted Tsukishima to believe that there was at least one person he could trust with anything. Tadashi wanted to be that person. 

“Tsukki?” Tadashi questioned when he realized Tsukki still hadn’t said a word. 

He didn’t speak, but the taller boy did move. He turned over, surprising Tadashi as he wrapped his arms around Tadashi’s body. One arm slid under the pillow below Tadashi’s head, curling into a bar across his chest. The other came to rest over his middle. Tadashi loosed a small gasp as Tsukishima pulled Tadashi back against his chest. He let out a shuddering exhale as he felt Tsukishima’s nose in his hair. 

“Is this okay?” Tsukishima asked, breath raising goosebumps on the back of Tadashi’s neck.

His heart hammered in his chest but quickly slowed, his body relaxing into Tsukishima’s. It felt good. It felt _safe._

“Yes,” Tadashi breathed. “Yeah.”

It said more than Tadashi thought Tsukishima was capable of saying with words. It said more than either of them seemed to know how to acknowledge out loud. They were just two stupid teenage boys who had grown up together, thrown into things much bigger than they were ever taught to handle, still figuring so much out. That was okay.

Sleep tugged quickly at Tadashi, but before he drifted off, he found Tsukishima’s hand in the dark and held on. 

☽ 〇 ☾

It took a shockingly short amount of time for Yamaguchi to get used to the idea that Kei was a vampire. It took an even shorter amount of time for that to start causing problems for Kei. They were certainly a preferable set of problems to his recent ones, but still… 

“So, if you _can_ drink animal blood, why do any vampires drink human blood?”

They were walking to school on Monday morning, shoulders brushing together in the diffused light of dawn. 

“Animal blood doesn’t really satisfy the… the craving? It’s like, it makes me less hungry, but I still feel bad after,” Kei explained. “It’s like… missing something.”

“Like if you only ate chips and candy and stuff, not getting your vitamins and protein and things?” Yamaguchi asked with a furrowed brow. 

“I suppose,” Kei replied.

If candy and chips also tasted like trash, Kei thought. He supposed it was a pretty good analogy though. The animal blood was like eating enough calories to live on, but without anything really nutritious. The pretty permanent headache that sat in the base of his skull was evidence enough of that. 

“That sounds crappy. It’s been weeks and weeks since the break, are you saying you’ve felt unwell most of that time?” Yamaguchi asked.

Kei shrugged as they rounded the side of the school building, on the path towards the volleyball gym. 

“It’s not that bad. It’s manageable. Besides, what’s the alternative?” Kei asked rhetorically.

Yamaguchi apparently didn’t get the rhetorical memo. 

“Well, what if you drank from me?”

Kei froze, feet glued to the pavement. It took a whole second for his brain to process the words, preferring instead to surface the sliver of memory that included the indescribable taste of Yamaguchi’s blood. He imagined sinking his fangs into soft, freckled flesh, his mouth filling up with hot, coppery liquid and—

“Tsukki?” Yamaguchi asked, head tilted to the side in question.

Time un-froze.

“No,” he said, flatly, and then walked into the gym.

And that should have been that. 

It wasn’t.

“Ok, but why not?”

They were sitting on the floor of Kei’s room, working through their homework. Kei had taken just a moment to rub his fingers against his temple in an attempt to relieve the pinching behind his eyes. 

“Why not what?”

“Why wouldn’t you drink from me?” Yamaguchi said, hands resting on his crossed ankles.

Kei blinked at him and then looked back down at his math homework.

“Because it’s a terrible idea,” he replied.

“But why? Based on your notes, it doesn’t seem like vampires kill their prey or take so much to cause problems for the person,” Yamaguchi said. “And like, Goto feeding on me was super scary because I didn’t know what was happening, but I was pretty much fine afterwards.”

Kei wrote his answer to the problem carefully in pencil. He put a mark next to it to double check later.

“I interrupted Goto feeding on you. So our two examples are a partial feeding and the time where I would have died if I hadn’t been turned. It’s not worth the risk,” Kei said, and stood up. “I’m going to get some drinks. Do you want anything?”

“Tsukki,” Yamaguchi attempted to admonish his blatant ploy to end the conversation.

Kei wasn’t sorry as he exited his room. 

Yamaguchi, to Kei’s well concealed consternation, didn’t give up. 

Later in the week they were practicing serve-receives to quick-attack combos at afternoon practice. They had a full team rotation on one side of the net and just Yamaguchi, Kei, and Kikuchi on the other side. Yamaguchi was serving while Kei and Kikuchi set up blocks that the other side were supposed to be trying to avoid with quicks. 

“The next spike will come from Hinata,” Kei murmured to Kikuchi under his breath as they got organized on the other side of the net.

“How do you know?” Kikuchi asked.

It was a fair question, they had a strong rotation, with Hinata, Tanaka, and Matsui all in a position to strike if needed, but… 

“The last five sets haven’t gone his way. Kageyama won’t make him wait longer in practice,” Tsukishima explained, and then a little louder. “He’s whipped.”

That caught Kageyama’s attention. Blue eyes flashed in Kei’s direction and narrowed. Kei raised his eyebrows back in challenge. Kageyama hadn’t heard the first part, but he could probably guess what Kei was talking about.

They were brought to attention by the solid _bom!_ of Tadashi’s serve, a straight jump spike this time. Nishinoya received it a little off center, but well enough that Kageyama could set it without much difficulty. 

“Wait… wait…” Kei murmured. “Now!”

The jump felt decent, their hands were well positioned, but it just wasn’t timed well enough. Hinata added a stutter step at the last second and the ball smacked against Kei’s falling fingertips, flying through the air behind them for the point. 

Kei gritted his teeth and ignored the unbearably smug face of Kageyama. 

“We’ll get them on the next one,” Kei said to Kikuchi, who nodded enthusiastically. 

After practice, when he and Yamaguchi were stretching out in a quiet corner of the gym, Yamaguchi brought it up again. 

“What if not having human blood is making you worse at volleyball?” he asked.

Kei, laying on his back, switched legs to touch his right knee to the wooden gym floor. Yamaguchi did the same next to him. 

“Have you been talking to Bokuto-san recently?” Kei deflected. 

Yamaguchi wasn’t deterred. 

“I’m just saying! If you’re feeling unwell a lot of the time, there’s no way that you can play your best, you know?” 

Kei stood up, stretching each of his arms over his head one last time, before grabbing his water bottle and heading off the court. 

“Drop it, Yamaguchi,” Kei said. “It’s never happening.” 

Unfortunately for Kei, Yamaguchi was way more persistent than anyone but he knew. He wasn’t intimidated by Kei and, when he was fixated on something that he genuinely thought mattered, he didn’t give up. 

Kei had resolutely made up his mind that he wouldn’t risk his best friend’s health and safety for a sip of blood. He was certain of that. 

So imagine Kei’s shock when he found himself sitting on his bedroom floor on a Saturday morning, psyching himself up to sink his fangs into Yamaguchi’s wrist.

☽ 〇 ☾

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think! The comments have been so inspiring and mood boosting. 
> 
> If you like this fic I would super appreciate a retweet of the fic tweet [here](https://twitter.com/moonlumie/status/1293678886820048896?s=20)!


	6. Chapter 6

☽ 〇 ☾

“If we tried your idea,” Kei found himself saying after Yamaguchi’s most recent bid to make himself a vampire buffet. “Which we’re definitely not, but if we did we’d have to actually think it through, take precautions.”

“Like what?” Yamaguchi asked. 

The weather was warming up, so he and Kei had found a quiet spot behind the school to sit and eat their lunches. Kei carefully selected a piece of broccoli and ate it before responding. 

“I wouldn’t bite your neck, to start,” Kei mused. “It’s too dangerous.”

Honestly, Kei didn’t think he could make himself do it without having some kind of anxiety attack anyway. He still had way too many nightmares that featured the horrible moment when Goto bit him. It wasn’t even the pain, or an image, or a sound. It was like the moment when you know you’ve broken a bone before the agony kicks in, the _wrongness_ like an alarm bell, that something is damaged that _should not_ be damaged…

“Well, you could just bite, like, my arm or wrist,” Yamaguchi said, leaning over to take some of Kei’s vegetables and replace them with one of his mom’s tamagoyaki.

Kei always had a soft spot for her recipe. 

“It’s not just that. There are so many other things we’d have to set up and prepare for,” Kei said

“Well, then, let's set them up,” Yamaguchi said with a smile. He quickly stood up. “Do you want a drink from the vending machine?”

Kei just narrowed his eyes as Yamaguchi started to walk away.

How dare he use Kei’s own tactics against him. 

It was 9 am on Saturday morning. The first step had been picking a weekend where Kei’s parents would be staying in the city, but Yamaguchi’s parents would be home and only minutes away. Kei insisted, just in case the worst happened. 

Kei purchased a fully outfitted first aid kid and made sure he was completely acquainted with everything inside. Then he made sure Yamaguchi knew the information just as well. 

“What do you do if the blood comes through the gauze that you’re using to put pressure on a wound?” Kei asked over their breakfast. 

“Don’t remove the gauze, just add more. And keep the wound elevated above your heart if you can. I know, Tsukki,” Yamaguchi said, putting their dishes in the sink. 

Up in Kei’s room, Yamaguchi sat on his bed, leaning back on his hands as he watched Kei set up meticulously. Kei had pushed his desk over a few feet so that he could spread one of his black towels next to the wall, underneath one of his shelves. He asked for Yamaguchi’s phone and pre-dailed the emergency line before setting it down on the towel. He set the first aid kit, a pack of baby wipes, and some pepper spray down as well, all close by.

“Tsukki, don’t you think this is a little overboard?” Yamaguchi asked as Kei re-entered the room with a bucket of water.

“We could just not do this at all, Yamaguchi,” Kei said, the threat stopping further complaints from Tadashi. 

He delicately connected the bucket to a little rope rig he’d set up.

Kei read online that pouring water on or spraying biting animals with a hose could often shock them out of a bite, which triggered the idea for this fail-safe. Kei delicately placed the bucket on the edge of the shelf. One thin rope hung from a hook on the rim of the bucket, hanging all the way down to the floor. The other rope connected to the bucket handle to make sure it wouldn’t fall down completely, just dump its load of water. 

“Alright, come over here and bring those pillows,” Kei said and Yamaguchi complied without any new commentary. 

Kei set the pillows up against the wall, covered them in another black towel and then motioned for the other boy to take a seat. Yamaguchi adjusted his black tee-shirt over his black sweats, the cheapest they could find, and sat down. The string connected to the bucket was in easy grabbing distance, as were the phone and pepper spray, even for someone who might be partially incapacitated. 

Kei took a deep steading breath as he mentally checked everything off in his head once more. Yamaguchi looked up at him and smiled softly.

“It’s going to be fine, Tsukki. I trust you.”

Kei huffed as he sat down, cross-legged, in front of Yamaguchi.

“Well, I don’t particularly trust myself, which is probably good considering I’m a parasitic carnivore,” Kei said. 

“Tsukki,” Yamaguchi admonished. 

“It’s fine. I know,” Kei acquiesced. 

He was anxious. Bitter self-deprecation and apathy were his go-to defense mechanisms and Yamaguchi saw right through him. He had to calm down. Yamaguchi was right, in all honesty. He’d smelled Yamaguchi’s blood multiple times, even tasted it, and didn’t lose himself. 

But he just couldn’t be _sure_ , he couldn’t guess what would happen with one-hundred percent accuracy, and that had kept him up at night all week. 

Yamaguchi reached out and squeezed Kei’s knee once. Kei nodded. It was now or never. 

He scooted closer to Yamaguchi before realizing that the two sets of long legs between them made the position a little awkward for what they were about to do. Throwing caution to the wind, Kei moved Yamaguchi’s legs to rest on top of his crossed ones, so that he was functionally sitting between Yamaguchi’s legs. Kei felt the other boy’s knees knock against his ribs, his slender thighs a comforting weight over Kei’s folded legs. Kei was too focused to pay attention to the blush spreading over Yamaguchi’s face. 

In this position it was easy to take Yamaguchi’s arm in his hands, turn his head to the side and face the long stretch of delicate, pale skin. 

“Are you ready?” Kei asked, meeting Yamaguchi’s eyes.

Yamaguchi gave a sharp nod, jaw set. 

He looked a little less confident than he had on the bed, though Kei thought that might have more to do with their current position than fear. They haven’t talked about the new element that had been growing between them, the energy that flowed between them when they were alone. Kei was fairly sure it was mutual, and that it had been there for a long while now, but he had no idea how to bring it up or act on it.

And he’d had other things on his mind recently. 

“I’m ready,” Yamaguchi answered Kei’s question aloud, more confident. 

Kei nodded, and looked back at Yamaguchi’s arm. One slim hand was wrapped around the shorter boy’s wrist, his other sat just below his elbow. A few stray freckles dotted the unbroken expanse of skin. Kei inhaled and then exhaled slowly, his breath shaky. It raised goosebumps on Yamaguchi’s skin, right in front of Kei’s eyes. He could smell Yamaguchi’s blood, sweet and metallic, and hear his quickened pulse. 

Kei felt his fangs drop, still unused to the strange sensation of extra teeth descending from his gums like retractable cat claws.

Yamaguchi didn’t push him again, and for that Kei was thankful. He leaned forward slowly, until his lips were hovering just millimeters above the skin. He closed his eyes and tried to center himself. His own heart raced and his head spun, some powerful instinct telling him to lunge and sink down like a shark.

Kei didn’t; he opened his mouth until he could rest his fangs against Yamguchi’s arm, making sure he wouldn’t bite too deeply. He froze for a second, all the sensations compounding into an overwhelming flood of feeling and sensation. 

_Just do it!_

With that final thought, Kei tightened his grip on Yamaguchi’s arm and bit down. 

Yamaguchi flinched and gasped, but it felt like nothing to Kei, his body flushed with inhuman strength. For a second, nothing happened, and then Kei relaxed his jaw and groaned as blood flowed over his tongue. 

The feeling that came with the first swallow was nearly indescribable. Kei had never been stranded in a desert, but he assumed this is what the first sip of water taken by a dying man would feel like. In comparison to this, rat blood was like sustaining himself on nothing but a handful of raw cabbage a day.

It went beyond sating hunger. There was another primal need being fulfilled that Kei would never be able to explain to a regular human. 

He inhaled deeply through his nose, and Kei drank.

☽ 〇 ☾

At first there was pain. That wasn’t surprising to Tadashi. Tsukishima had just bitten into his arm, through his skin, into the muscle below. He’d been prepared for that. However, he _was_ surprised to find that the pain faded quickly when he wasn’t fighting it or trying to pull away. Soon after Tsukishima began to drink, it numbed into a simple pressure. This time, without the panic, Tadashi felt the way the vampire venom began to spread throughout his body. Without the fear of an attack, it felt completely different. 

Instead of terror at losing the ability to move his body, Tadashi felt it spread warmly, relaxing his muscles. It tingled in his fingertips and made his head roll back onto the pillows between him and the wall. Tadashi tested his ability to move his free hand and found that he could, slowly, with concentrated effort. So he gave into the sensations, looking back at his best friend. 

Tsukishima’s back was curled, and his lips were pressed against Tadashi’s skin. His eyes were closed, gossamer blonde eyelashes resting against his cheeks. There was a small line between his eyebrows, and Tadashi might think _he_ was in pain if not for the quiet sounds that Tsukki kept making. 

Tadashi doubted the other boy knew he was making any sounds at all. He’d probably be mortified at the small whimpers and groans that were slipping from his throat. His fingertips pressed into Tadashi’s skin like he was desperate. The feeling of the venom in his system was shifting, the warm sensation growing hotter, lighting him on fire. He hadn’t expected _this_.

Tadashi’s legs were currently around his best friend’s waist. Tsukishima’s lips were pressed against his skin, and the venom that was meant to make him compliant was doing its job too well. Tadashi bit down on his lip to stop from making noises himself. This was about getting Tsukishima fed. _Focus,_ he told himself. He closed his eyes and began to think about anything other than Tsukki’s body so close to his own. _Black holes, beetles, Hinata’s gym socks, the Vice Principal…_

Tadashi wasn’t sure how long Tsukishima drank. He breathed through it, trying to astrally project himself into another universe where he wasn’t getting turned on by his friend drinking his blood. It felt like forever, but it couldn’t have been more than a moment or two before Tadashi felt the pressure on his arm lift. He opened his eyes in time to see Tsukki run his thumb over one of his fangs. He rubbed his now bleeding cut over the shallow wound on Tadashi’s arm.

There was more tingling as the skin quickly stitched itself back together.

He heard Tsukishima sigh contentedly.

Tadashi’s first hysterical thought was that Tsukki was a way less of a messy eater than that Goto bastard. There were one or two crimson lines on his arm where a drop or two of blood had escaped but Tsukishima’s face didn’t even look gory. People looked worse after getting punched in the mouth. Tsukki wiped his lips on the back of his hand.

“Did you get enough?” Tadashi broke the silence, his voice a rough whisper for some reason he couldn’t really pin down. 

Tsukishima licked his lips to clear the last of the evidence and grabbed one of the baby wipes to clean Tadashi’s arm. The shorter boy twisted his other hand into the towel on the ground, desperately trying to calm himself down. 

“Yeah,” Tsukishima said. His face looked flushed and his eyes were bright when he finally looked up at Yamaguchi. “Are you feeling okay?”

“I don’t think I could stand up right now with the venom, but I feel fine,” Tadashi said—he felt more than fine if he was being honest. “But how do _you_ feel? Better?” 

Tsukishima actually smiled. Tadashi is pretty sure the only time he’s seen Tsukishima smile exactly like that, a bit wild eyed and self-confident, was on the volleyball court. 

“I hadn’t realized how bad I felt. I guess it had gotten worse slowly and I didn’t realize it until it suddenly went away,” Tsukishima said. “I feel… good.”

Tadashi could tell how true that was just by looking at Tsukishima. The tightness around his eyes that had been a permanent feature over the past few months was gone. He looked relaxed and comfortable in his own skin in a way that Tadashi hadn’t seen in a while. He looked _healthy._

“I told you so,” Tadashi couldn’t help himself.

“Shut up, Yamaguchi,” Tsukishima said without any bite. 

“Sorry, Tsukki,” Tadashi chuckled. 

Then things went sideways for Tadashi. 

Tsukishima glanced downwards and Tadashi followed his gaze down to his still very present erection. The thin sweatpants did absolutely nothing to hide it. 

“Ah—Um, I’m so sorry. I—”

Tadashi tried to cover himself up but forgot that his body was still pretty flooded with incapacitating vampire venom and only succeeded in knocking his arm against Tsukishima’s knee weakly. There was no escape. All Tadashi could do was sit there and feel his face burn. It was probably crimson at this point, maybe an entirely new shade of red. He squeezed his eyes shut tight as if that could remove him from the situation. 

The situation where he had a boner while basically sitting in Tsukki’s lap, his brain helpfully reiterated. 

“Oh my god.”

Tadashi used all of his feeble strength to try and melt backwards into the pillows, into oblivion. 

“Yamaguchi, calm down.”

It was a simple command that Tadashi found difficult to obey. He did open his eyes, though, and found that Tsukishima didn’t look disgusted like Tadashi expected. 

In fact, the other boy looked pretty normal, barring a light dusting of pink over his cheeks. Tadashi wasn’t even sure if that was from his meal or their current predicament. The predicament that Tsukishima could have easily gotten them out of but hadn’t. That was weird, right? _He_ wasn’t immobilized. Tsukishima held Tadashi’s eye for a long few seconds, as if he was looking for something specific in Tadashi’s face. 

The moment hung by a string, and then Tsukishima cut it cleanly. 

“Do you want me to help you with that?”

_“What?!”_

Tadashi’s voice skipped about five octaves. 

“I mean, you helped me out, right?” Tsukishima said with a subtle shrug. “It seems fair.”

Tadashi was getting slightly more feeling back into his limbs, enough to squirm in shock. 

“Tsukki! This isn’t—you can’t—just to pay me back—,” Tadashi explained eloquently. 

Tsukishima’s casual air dropped slightly, exposing it as at least a partial facade. He looked away from Tadashi’s face and then carefully set his hands down on top of the other boy’s thighs, just above the knee. The blush on Tsukki’s cheeks spread further and this time it definitely wasn’t just from the feeding. 

“What if…” he started and paused. “What if I wanted to? What then?”

The sunlight coming through the tiny split in the closed curtains drew a stark gold line through the room. Tadashi felt frozen, absolutely unable to respond. Tsukishima looked back at him, clocking the shorter boy’s parted lips. 

His hands moved a bit higher on Tadashi’s legs. 

“Could I help then?”

Tadashi didn’t remember making a conscious decision.

He nodded. 

Tsukishima’s fingers spasmed against his thighs and Tadashi let his head tip back, giving in. He let his eyes fall shut and drew a shuddering breath when he felt Tsukki’s hands climb even higher. 

The mortification almost overtook Tadashi when he felt fingers on his waistband, the cheap, stretchy fabric too easy to shimmy down. The air in the room was chilly in comparison to the heat between his legs. Tadashi’s breathing was shallow and quick, body trying and failing to tense up with the venom still in his system. 

Then Tadashi felt a hand close around his length, which hadn’t flagged at all under the onslaught of anxiety. He gasped as his spine bowed slightly. The palm was wet as it made an exploratory stroke up to the tip and then back down to the base. Tsukki must have spit into his palm or something.

The realization set off twelve more emergency protocols in Tadashi’s brain. The image was too much, even imagined. 

He felt Tsukishima scoot even closer. 

“It’s okay, Yamaguchi,” he breathed. “Just relax.”

At first, Tadashi thought that was a ridiculous request. How could he relax when Tsukishima’s hand was on his—

The hand on Tadashi’s cock began to move rhythmically. A whine leaked out of Tadashi’s throat at the shocking sensation. It’s not that Tadashi had never done this to himself and so it was surprising that this felt completely different. Those were _Tsukki’s_ long, thin fingers, that was _Tsukki’s_ exploratory pace, that was _Tsukki_ pausing to run his thumb over Tadashi’s slit, smearing precome around the head of his length. 

Tadashi’s skin felt tight under his clothes, sweat suddenly prickling all over his body. His whole being throbbed with want. 

“Does it feel good?” Tsukishima murmured, not so much dirty talk as a genuine question. 

Tadashi risked opening his eyes. He caught a flash of red-stained cheeks and Tsukishima’s lowered eyelashes. He was watching Tadashi closely. The other boy looked up to meet Tadashi’s gaze. It was too much, he closed his eyes again and nodded his confirmation as vigorously as he could.

It felt good. It felt _so_ good.

That seemed to give Tsukishima confidence. The movement of his hand on Tadashi became more sure. It was a little drier than usual but Tadashi was a teenager and the pleasure of someone _else_ touching him eclipsed everything else. 

_“Mmmn,”_ Tadashi tried and failed to bite back the noises.

He felt Tsukishima’s free hand slide up from his hip, pushing Tadashi’s shirt out of the way as he went. Tsukki’s hands were big, if delicate. It had never been more apparent, though, than when that palm and those fingers splayed wide across Tadashi’s ribcage. 

Tadashi drew in a ragged breath.

It was such a simple touch, but the way it pressed into Tadashi’s side made him feel held, like this was way more than a perfunctory handjob. Fingers pressed gently into the spaces between Tadashi’s ribs, a perfect fit, like his very bones were made to fit Tsukishima’s hands. 

_“Tsu—Tsukki…”_

He heard a hum in response and the hand on him sped up. Tadashi wasn’t going to last long. His head was spinning, the sensations far too much for him to process without frying his brain. 

Tsukishima’s free hand traveled a bit higher. A thumb brushed against Tadashi’s nipple and his whole body seized, as if suddenly remembering that it could move. His heavy, clumsy arms reached out, fingers twining into Tsukki’s shirt around his waist. 

Tadashi had no idea his chest was so sensitive. He’d never thought to try touching them. His hand and some lewd images or videos, if he was feeling risque, had always been enough to get him off. This, though, was completely overwhelming. Tadashi’s breath hiccuped out of his chest as his strengthening legs began to tighten, pressing against his best friend’s hips. 

Tsukishima began to add a twist at the top of his stroke and Tadashi couldn’t hold back his noises anymore. His hips began to twitch up into Tsukishima’s hand. It would be embarrassing to climax so quickly but it was rapidly becoming an inevitability. 

“Tsukki, I’m—”

Tadashi was dragged further down the wall by his hip, closer and more vulnerable. He was still too overwhelmed to open his eyes but— _oh god—_ he could feel Tsukishima’s breath against his cheek, against his ear. 

“You can,” Tsukishima whispered. “It’s ok.”

A hand cupped Tadashi’s neck, a thumb against the bolt of his jaw. Tadashi felt surrounded, suspended. He couldn’t get enough air into his lungs and his sock-covered toes were curling into the floor behind Tsukishima’s back. The pressure was building, higher and higher. 

_“Ts—Tsu—Tsukki!”_

Yamaguchi’s lower back arched and his hips pumped arrhythmically and he came over Tsukishima’s fingers. 

Tsukki stroked him through it, Tadashi’s sweaty temple pressed against his cheek. When the last of the sharp shocks of pleasure faded into smaller waves of warmth, Tadashi tried to get oxygen back into his body, to bring his brain back online. Tsukishima’s hand left him and Tadashi felt him wiping it off on the towel beneath them.

Nervously, Tadashi cracked his eyes open. Tsukishima was staring at him, hands now resting on Tadashi’s hips. Luckily, the shorter boy was too wrung out to be overwhelmed by embarrassment in that moment. Instead, he was able to register that Tsukishima’s eyes had a feral edge to them, his own breathing a little shallow and labored. He looked… affected. 

They stared each other down, Tadashi’s hands still fisted in Tsukki’s shirt. He unclenched one, realizing he had most of his mobility back. 

They blinked, waiting for something that Tadashi couldn’t guess. 

He’s not sure who broke the stillness first. All Tadashi knows is that suddenly his lips are pressed to Tsukishima’s. 

His best friend.

His favorite person.

He rocked forward to wrap his arms around Tsukki’s neck, pulling him forward. His back would have hit the wall hard if not for the pillows that Tsukishima had carefully placed behind him. The first kiss was clumsy, just two faces pressed together. It was innocent, if passionate, in the wake of what they’d just done. Their lips parted, and met again. 

Tadashi wanted this so badly. He wanted Tsukishima to want it too, and if this was any indication, he may have gotten his wish. Warmth welled up inside Tadashi, different from the heat from before. Tsukishima’s arms slid around Tadashi’s back, pulling Tadashi fully into his lap. It felt like a dream as they tipped together, closer—

And then reality came crashing down as someone’s leg accidentally caught the thin rope hanging down onto the towel. There was the foreboding sound of metal slipping against wood and then cold water cascaded over their heads. 

They sputtered, eyes flying open. Tuskishima got the worst of it, his head and upper body absolutely drenched. His glasses were washed half way down his nose, his shirt sticking to his chest. He looked nearly _offended_. How dare the water interrupt them like that? Betrayed by his own safety measure. 

Tadashi couldn’t help hit. He tucked his chin downward as laughter bubbled up from deep in his chest. He pressed the back of his hand to his lips to try and stop it, but it just came louder. The sound broke the tension, but Tadashi couldn't stop.

“Shut up, Yamaguchi,” Tsukishima finally spoke.

Tadashi couldn’t. He laughed and laughed, his whole body shaking with it, knees knocking against Tsukki’s sides, his hands on the taller boy’s shoulders as he tipped his head backwards.

“Yamaguchi,” Tsukishima said again, admonishing. 

It only made Tadashi laugh harder. Oh gosh, he loved this boy so much.

He pulled Tsukishima in, knocking their foreheads together. 

“Alright, alright,” Tsukishima huffed in annoyance, but then Tadashi felt arms around his back, playing with the hem of his shirt.

The curtains fluttered as a breeze slipped through the cracked window, washing the two boys with gilded light. 

“Come on, lets get changed,” Tsukishima said. 

“Okay, Tsukki,” Tadashi murmured, perfectly content. 

☽ 〇 ☾

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Been deeply enjoying everyone's comments and would love to know what you think of this, er, climactic chapter. 
> 
> If you like this fic I would super appreciate a retweet of the fic tweet [here](https://twitter.com/moonlumie/status/1297991589730480129?s=20)!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter! This story got a lot longer than I expected it to and I have to say I have zero regrets about that. Really hope you enjoy this last installment of Blood Moon :)

☽ 〇 ☾

On Sunday, the day after their successful feeding experiment, Tsukishima asked Tadashi if he wanted to go to the mall. They’d finished up their homework the previous night, so they had the day free. Yamaguchi had been meaning to get a new spring sweater so he was happy to agree. The one that he’d bled on couldn’t be salvaged in the end, so he’d been down his favorite go-to. Surprisingly, Tsukishima suggests they leave fairly early in the day, before lunch. 

When Tsukki came downstairs, Tadashi did a double-take. His legs looked miles long in skinny jeans. He was wearing a pale, cable-knit sweater and a sage checkered scarf that Tadashi hadn’t seen before. 

“Is that a new scarf?” Tadashi asked.

“Akiteru got it for me for Christmas, but it’s the decorative kind so it wasn’t warm enough for winter,” Tsukishima shrugged.

“I feel underdressed now,” Tadashi chuckled, looking down at his simple tee-shirt, jeans, and open jacket combo.

“You look fine. Let’s go.”

Things only got stranger from there. 

He and Tsukishima had been to the mall more times than he could count. They were teenagers and there were only so many things to do in town, though they’d deny that if any of the Tokyo teams asked. They got enough ‘country bumpkin’ remarks as is. They took the train as usual, sharing a set of earbuds, but Tadashi was surprised when Tsukishima paused the music earlier than expected.

“Isn’t our stop the next one?” Tadashi asked as Tsukishima stood up.

“The park next to the mall supposedly had a late sakura bloom this year and I haven’t gone to hanami yet. I thought we could walk through on the way?”

Tadashi’s brows rose. They hadn’t gone to a cherry blossom viewing in a few years but he had no complaints. He quickly got up to follow Tsukishima off the train. 

They grabbed some food from a stall on the perimeter of the park, Tsukishima tucking some pork buns and a few drinks into a bag before leading them in. It was a bit late in the season but the park was still crowded. The two boys wandered under the pale boughs until they found an empty bench, which was no easy task. Luckily, the wandering was enjoyable enough in itself. 

They talked about music and volleyball—and a new spinosaurus fossil featured in their most recent National Geographic that threw current assumptions on the dinosaur fascinatingly into question—until they finished their food and Tsukishima’s hair was dotted with flower petals. Tadashi was sure he looked the same. He laughed and Tsukki smiled as they tried to shake the petals out of their hair and clothes. Afterward, Tadashi bought them some hanami dango from another food stall and they walked a little longer. 

They finally made it to the mall as they finished their treats and headed inside. The next few hours were pretty normal as they popped in and out of shops. Tsukishima convinced Tadashi to splurge on two different sweaters, one light blue with yellow stars, the other dark green with a t-rex plastered across the front. Tsukishima ended up buying a new set of mechanical pencils and decided against purchasing a new pair of volleyball shoes.

“They’re such a pain to break in,” Tsukishima bemoaned.

“Don’t come crying to me when you end up with a rip in your sole mid-match,” Tadashi teased. 

They mostly window shopped and wandered after making their intended purchases, eventually ending up in the arcade. They took turns on some of their favorite single-player games before playing a few rounds head to head. Maybe this was Tsukki trying to make up for their time apart, and Tadashi appreciated it deeply. He basked in the calm smile that Tsukishima often wore when it was just the two of them. People always ask him how he was so close to someone as prickly as Tsukishima, but they didn’t know him like Tadashi did. 

He’d missed this. 

It wasn’t quite _late_ when they left the arcade, but it was about the time they would normally head home. 

Instead, Tsukishima pulled on Tadashi’s sleeve and led him into a little cafe on the outskirts of the mall. Tadashi hadn’t been there before. It was decorated in a cute style, with little tables and soft lighting. The big display case by the counter boasted a multitude of intricate cakes. Tadashi followed Tsukki to the register with a little furrow between his brow. This was much fancier than places they usually went. Tadashi leaned forward, glancing around and feeling a little out of place behind Tsukishima. 

Unsurprisingly, Tsukishima ordered a strawberry shortcake. Tadashi ordered a cheesecake after some deliberation. It had a little chocolate butterfly on top and a raspberry drizzle.

They sat down at one of the tiny tables, their long legs bumping together unavoidably. Tadashi’s brow was still drawn as he was still taking in everything around them: the delicate napkins, the way every single table was for two people. The cafe wasn’t packed, but there were a number of other people present, and if Tadashi didn’t know any better, he’d say every one of them was part of a couple. 

Tadashi frowned as he took his first bite, ruminating. Suddenly, he had a wild thought. 

“Tsukki?” 

“Yeah?” Tsukishima said, poking the decorative sliced strawberry on top of his cake with a fork.

“Is this… a date?”

Tsukishima put the strawberry in his mouth and chewed slowly. Tadashi waited with bated breath for what felt like a really long time. 

“I mean, that was the idea,” Tsukki finally said. 

Tadashi’s face was immediately washed with heat. 

“Tsukki! Why didn’t you tell me?!” Tadashi squawked and then flinched when a few other patrons looked in his direction.

Tsukishima pushed another strawberry around his plate. 

“I thought it would be obvious...” he said. “With what happened yesterday. I didn’t think you were the _friends-with-benefits_ type, Yamaguchi.” 

Tadashi flushed crimson.

“No! Of course not, but you can’t just… _not tell a person_ you’re going on a date with them,” Tadashi said and was suddenly even more embarrassed about his outfit. 

Tsukishima leaned forward a bit, elbow on the table, one hand holding up his chin.

“What? Did you want me to confess, _Tadashi-kun?”_ Tsukki said in a soft, mocking tone. 

It made Tadashi simultaneously laugh and blush harder. Now that Tsukishima mentioned _confessing_ , Tadashi noticed that there was pink staining his cheeks, too. Tadashi narrowed his eyes and thought back over the day, over what he knew about Tsukishima. 

“Oh my god, Tsukki. Were you trying to just start dating me without telling me to avoid confessing or asking me out?” Tadashi blurted.

The pink turned red and Tsukishima looked away. Bingo. He took another bite of shortcake, likely to avoid answering that question. 

“Oh my god,” Tadashi laughed. 

God forbid Tsukishima had to talk about his feelings. The older he’d got, the more it seemed like he’d pick death before exposing his true emotions. He’d been better since Tokyo, but Tsukishima still wasn’t going around telling everyone how much he loved his family or enjoyed volleyball, even though he definitely did on both counts. Luckily, Tadashi had gotten pretty good at reading him over the years. The ball was in his court now. 

“So what you’re saying—or not saying, I guess—is that you want to be my boyfriend, Tsukki?” Tadashi said with just a bit of self-satisfaction. 

Tsukishima set his fork down and put his face in his hands, rubbing his temples. He composed himself and looked back up. He took a deep breath. 

“Yeah, if you want me to,” he said. 

Tadashi’s eyes crinkled up and he let the teasing air drop. He grinned warmly and hooked his feet around Tsukishima’s legs under the table.

“Of course I do, Tsukki.”

They finished their desserts in relative silence, both smiling with varied intensity. When they were leaving, Tadashi leaned over to ask a question, making sure he could see Tsukishima’s face when he asked.

“Does this mean we can hold hands and cuddle and stuff?” 

Tsukishima huffed and looked away, a telltale blush painting his cheeks again. 

“Shut up, Yamaguchi.”

“Sorry, Tsukki,” Tadashi said, unphased.

In spite of his words and reaction, when they stopped on the crowded train platform, Tsukishima stuck his hand out, fingers wide. He was looking away, but the invitation was obvious. Tadashi smiled hard enough that his eyes closed and his teeth flashed as he took Tsukishima’s hand and squeezed. 

☽ 〇 ☾

_Thwak-bom!_

The sound of another successful block echoed through the gym, followed by the whistle for a Karasuno point. Aoba Josai’s Kyotani Kentarou snarled through the net.

“That’s three,” Kei said with a smile. “I hope I don’t make you tuck your tail and run, _Kyouken_.”

It was actually their captain, Yahaba, who started to roll up his sleeve and march towards the net, but their libero quickly caught him by the back of the jersey. Kei tactically ignored him as he got back into position for Yamaguchi’s serve.

“Yamaguchi, nice serve,” he chorused with the rest of the team for once. 

It was in fact, a nice serve. It whistled through the air like a rocket and touched down with a sharp _thump_ , just on the inside of the end line, perfectly splitting the area between Watari and Kunimi. Service ace. 

The next serve was received, but poorly. It arced back over the net to the Karasuno side, a chance ball and an easy dig for Hinata, who was currently on the backline. He bumped a clean pass to Kageyama, and then five of them were rushing the net.

The high-risk, high-reward five-man synchronized attack had become nearly as signature to Karasuno’s game as the freak-quick. Kei’s brain whirred as he tried to clock the positions of their opponents, his teammates, and his innate drive to try and guess where Kageyama would toss the ball.

A back attack from Hinata? No, he was a step behind from the receive. Tanaka? Yamaguchi?

 _No,_ something in his head whispered. _This one is_ **_mine._ **

Kei wasn’t sure if that was an assessment or demand, but he felt good, and at this point he’d grudgingly admit that Kageyama had surely had noticed. 

Kei leaped. He tracked the toss in his peripheral, pulling his arm back. Kindaichi and Yahaba were up front, one of their better blocking configurations. Should he go for a dink?

No. Not today.

Kei swung his hand down with a resounding _boom_ the ball compressed against his palm, just for a second, before the separation. A clean line shot crashed to the ground on SeiJoh’s court and nearly ricocheted into the upper catwalk. 

Kei touched down to the sound of his teammates cheering, and felt a few slaps on the back. He took a second in the chaos to look down at his stinging palm. What was this? Extra strength?

No… no this was his own strength. This is what he’d been training to be, _his_ trajectory and _his_ potential. It had just been strangled by circumstance, by his ignored illness. The hidden dream that had nearly stuttered out in the aftermath of his attack flickered back to life. Kei clenched his hand into a fist and looked over his shoulder to lock eyes with Yamaguchi.

“One more,” he said. 

Yamaguchi smiled. 

☽ 〇 ☾

They took the first practice game in two sets, and then played another three, of which Karasuno won two more. It was obvious to the whole team that Tsukishima had been a huge part of that. Tadashi lost count of how many times that Tsukki stuffed the ball down SeiJoh’s side of the net. 

“I can’t believe we took four of five sets today. SeiJoh didn’t even look like they were having an off day or anything,” Tadashi said on their way home. “And you were amazing today, Tsukki.”

Tsukishima was walking with his hands stuffed in his pockets and simply shrugged.

“SeiJoh isn’t the team they were last year. Four of their starters were third years who stayed on through the spring. I’m sure they’re still getting adjusted to their new line-up,” Tsukishima said. “And losing Oikawa would mean they’re a completely different team even if they were fully meshed.”

Tadashi leaned forward a bit to see Tsukishima’s face better. He sounded completely unexcited, but Tadashi had seen him during the games. Even now he could spot… _something_ in the way that Tsukishima was walking, how he held himself.

“Psh, you crushed it today and you know it,” Yamaguchi said. “How was it actually? Do you think, you know, made a difference?”

Tsukishima tipped his head back a bit, looking up at the pale half moon that was just starting to rise above the treeline. 

“It made all the difference in the world,” he murmured honestly. 

Tadashi grinned so hard it hurt his face.

“That’s amazing, Tsukki,” Tadashi said. “We’ll have to figure out a sort of schedule, for you to drink. I felt a little woozy the day of but totally fine by the next day, so it shouldn’t be too difficult…”

It took a second for Tadashi to notice that Tsukishima had stopped walking. The shorter boy paused, looking back. Tsukki was looking at him, face unreadable. 

“Tsukki?”

“You know you’re not obligated to be a constant blood doner just because you know about me and getting fed on didn’t hurt you the first time,” he said. “I.. couldn’t ask…”

Tadashi turned fully around, jamming his hands into his own pockets as he walked back to Tsukki.

“Well, good think you don’t have to ask,” Tadashi said. “I’m offering.”

“Neither of us know how that could go in the long term,” Tsukishima said. 

Tadashi ducked into Tsukishima’s space, trying to figure out exactly where this was coming from. 

“Well, we can cross that bridge when we come to it, don’t you think?” he tried. 

Tsukishima took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a second. When he reopened them he looked much more like himself. 

“You’re right,” he said.

Tadashi smiled.

“Ooh, can you say that again so I can record it?” Tadashi said and the other boy narrowed his eyes, unamused. “Besides, I thought I was supposed to be the worry-wart between the two of us?”

Tsukishima didn’t deign to gratify any of that with a response. Instead he just began to walk again. Tadashi followed in step. Their shoulders brushed together and a cool breeze tossed Tadashi’s hair this way and that. It was kind of annoying. Maybe he’d cut it short afterall, he mused.

After another quiet minute, Tadashi gently knocked his elbow against Tsukishima’s arm. 

“You’re not alone in this anymore, you know that right? You’re my favorite person, Tsukki,” Tadashi said softly. “You have to know, being able to help you only makes me happy.”

Tsukishima’s face went pink at the words. His mouth opened and then closed again. He huffed once and then pulled Tadashi’s hand out of his pocket. He twined their fingers together, holding tight. 

“I… haven’t told anyone this yet,” Tsukishima started as they made their way in and out of pools of streetlight, his eyes straight forward. “I’m… I’m thinking of playing volleyball after high school.”

Tadashi stumbled, eyes wide. To someone else, the statement wouldn’t mean much. Lots of elite players like Tsukishima wanted to go on to play in college or even professional leagues. But Tadashi knew what it meant for _Tsukki_ to say it, to embrace his talent, to see a future in it. 

“Tsukki,” he breathed, and then he felt his face light up. “That’s amazing.”

The good news was that it seemed that Tadashi got through to Tsukishima about his willingness to support the vampire side of him. The bad news was that it directly led to the other boy showing up to one of their study sessions that week with a large drug store bag. 

He began lining bottles up on Tadashi’s desk. 

“Uh, Tsukki? What are those?”

Tsukishima was carefully turning them so the labels faced forward.

“Vitamins,” he said and pointed with a long finger, moving down the line in order. “Iron supplements, Folic Acid, B12, and a B-Complex multivitamin.”

“Um… why?”

Tsukishima glanced down to where Tadashi was sitting cross legged on the floor, and then started popping the caps on the vitamins. He poured a pill from each into his hand. 

“They promote creation of red blood cells,” Tsukishima explained. “If I feed on you regularly, the biggest potential problem is anemia. Your blood can replenish plasma and volume quickly as long as you’re hydrated, but red blood cells take time to make.”

He came over and sat down next to Tadashi, grabbing his hand and flipping it over. He placed the pills into his hand and then passed Tadashi his glass of water. 

“You’ll also want to eat a lot of red meat and dark leafy greens, if possible,” Tsukishima added. “If you show any symptoms of anemia, we stop for at least six weeks and I’ll go back on animal blood for that time.”

Tadashi wanted to argue that last point, but he could tell that Tsukishima was dead serious. His mom said relationships were all about compromise, and if this is what Tsukishima needed to not feel guilty about feeding on Tadashi, then he would agree.

“Alright, Tsukki,” he said and dutifully began to throw back the pills. 

He playfully stuck out his tongue to show his empty mouth when he was done. 

“Happy?” Tadashi asked. 

Tsukishima brushed some hair off Tadashi’s forehead. 

“Yeah,” he said, more serious than Tadashi expected. He waited a moment before continuing, as if he were working up the nerve. He was biting the inside of his cheek. “Can I kiss you…?”

A grin split Tadashi’s face. 

“Yeah. I’d like that,” he said and leaned forward. 

☽ 〇 ☾

The next Friday that Kei’s parents were out found him in his childhood bed with his childhood best friend, shirtless and kneeling above him. Yamaguchi was also shirtless for that matter. One of Kei’s favorite background playlists floated out of the little bluetooth speaker on his desk. He’d flipped off the overhead light so the room was lit by Kei’s bedside lamp and the streetlight seeping in from the street outside. 

Kei hadn’t meant for this to happen when he invited Yamaguchi over but he wasn’t exactly complaining. They were currently parted, catching their breaths. Yamaguchi’s freckled cheeks were washed with pink and his lips were wet and a little swollen. Kei wasn’t sure how long they’d been kissing, but he knew the playlist has restarted once and he felt more than a little hazy. The light headache that had been growing in the back of his Kei’s head wasn’t even noticeable right now.

Well, it wasn’t to Kei, but Yamaguchi was another story.

“Hey,” he rasped and then cleared his throat. His hands were resting on Kei’s waist. “Hey, do you want to drink, Tsukki?”

Kei’s brow furrowed, feeling some of the fog in his head dissipate. 

“Is there a reason that you’re bringing this up… now?” he asked, his eyes tracking down to their half naked bodies and back up to make his point. 

Yamaguchi flushed harder, fingers lowering to nervously fiddle with the waistband of Kei’s sweats, which was way more distracting than he was sure the other boy meant it to be. 

“Well, I’ve noticed you’ve looked a bit pale this week and you’ve been rubbing your temples and—”

“Ok, sure, but why _right_ now?” Kei said. “If you want to stop we can of course. You just can tell me.”

“No, I don’t want to stop,” Yamaguchi said immediately.

Now Kei was getting a little frustrated. He didn’t like to be confused. 

“Ok… then why—”

Yamaguchi smacked his hands down over his face and interrupted. 

“It feels really good, Tsukki! And I just thought…” Yamaguchi said. “I’m sorry, it was a stupid idea.”

“Wait, what do you mean it feels good?” Kei said in a bit of shock, leaning back to basically sit on Yamaguchi’s thighs. 

Yamaguchi peeked through his parted fingers. 

“Um, you were there last time, Tsukki…?”

Kei’s brow knit even further. 

“I thought it was just… the position. We hadn’t really been that close before,” Kei said, his brain moving way slower than he was used to—he didn’t appreciate it. “Are you saying the feeding itself felt good?”

That _certainly_ hadn’t been Kei’s experience; he shuddered internally. He pulled Yamaguchi’s hands away from his face. The other boy slowly nodded.

“Yeah,” he whispered. “It was different than when it was against my will. The bite hurt but only for a second, and then… well the venom spread and it—well, it felt really good.”

Kei narrowed his eyes, processing. On his gut instinct, it felt wrong, but… was there really anything so bad about doing something mildly positive with this curse of his? Would it be so bad to at least have it positively associated with something?

And Yamaguchi was right. Kei was hungry. 

“Are… you sure?” Kei asked and Yamaguchi’s eyes widened like he definitely hadn’t thought that the taller boy would agree. 

Yamaguchi nodded again with his eyes still wide. 

“Yeah, Tsukki, I’m definitely sure,” he said, sounding eager. 

Tsukishima sighed and reached up to take his glasses off, folding them before neatly setting them on the bedside table. 

“Alright,” he said and leaned over the side of the bed to grab one of the black towels he had folded beneath. “Your arm again?” 

Yamaguchi bit his lip and Kei got the impression that he was going to take his inch and go for a mile. Nobody really gave Yamaguchi enough credit. 

“I know you don’t want to do neck and neither do I, but maybe…” he said and then ran the fingers of one hand over the space between his shoulder and the column of his throat. “Here…?”

It was a meaty area, primarily the trapezius stretching between the spine and clavicle. Based on the anatomy books that Kei poured over in preparation for biting Yamaguchi the first time, he’d admit it wasn’t a particularly dangerous area. 

And there was something… alluring about the idea. It was definitely a more intimate spot than his forearm. Kei swallowed. 

“Sure,” he murmured. “Lean forward.”

Yamaguchi followed directions so that Kei could lay the towel behind his upper back and shoulders. Kei definitely didn’t want to explain to his mother why his bedding had bloodstains on it. Once that was situated, Kei reoriented himself. He laid back down so he was half over Yamaguchi, held up by his elbow, his knees on either side of one of Yamaguchi’s. 

One of his hands slid up the side of Yamaguchi’s neck. 

“You’re sure you want this now?” Kei asked.

The vampire’s body was already reacting. Kei’s mouth flooded with saliva, and it came with a strange, sweet taste that Kei had come to assume was venom. It made Kei suspect that, like the increased strength, the venom only mixed with his saliva during a feeding response—it wasn’t venomous all the time. Not that he’d tested it yet. 

He breathed through his mouth and winced as his fangs dropped.

At this point he sincerely hoped Yamaguchi wanted this. If not he might need to go on a walk to clear his head. 

“Yeah,” Yamaguchi said, one of his hands sliding into the hair at Kei’s nape. 

The hand Kei had on the other boy’s neck slid upward, so he could use his thumb on Yamaguchi’s jaw to tilt his head to the side. He felt the shorter boy’s breath speed up. Kei heard his heart race temptingly. He kissed over the skin first, unsure exactly how Yamaguchi wanted this to go. It was uncharted waters so Kei just tried to do what felt right.

It didn’t take more than a few kisses and the thought of Yamaguchi’s blood before biting down felt like the most right thing in the world. His fangs sunk into smooth flesh. 

Yamaguchi gasped and Kei tried to let his saliva flow towards the front of his mouth, knowing that was what would make the pain stop most quickly. Then the blood began to flow and a groan escaped Kei’s throat. 

He drank, tiny mouthfuls sliding down his throat as the wound bled slowly, partially stymied by Kei’s teeth. It was strange how so little could feel like so much. Objectively he knew the blood he’d drank the first time around wouldn’t have filled up a pair of sake cups. However, each small mouthful felt like feasting to Kei. It warmed his stomach, sent a hot, vital energy out to his extremities. 

Yamaguchi started moaning, little whimpers and cries that slowly escalated until they broke through Kei’s haze. 

_Oh,_ well that was nice, too. 

He hiked his knee forward a little and his hand slid higher, into Yamaguchi’s hair. The strands felt so soft beneath his fingers. He twisted them beneath his fingers like Yamaguchi liked when they kissed—a recent discovery. 

The venom had already made Yamaguchi pliant beneath him, his warm fingers barely looped around Kei’s forearm, but the touch still triggered a feeble bucking motion and a sharp keen. Kei breathed in sharply through his nose, letting more of his weight drop down. 

He felt Yamaguchi’s hardness against his thigh, not that Kei was any better off. It was surprising. He was willing to accept that this might be pleasurable in a sexual way for Yamaguchi, but he hadn’t expected to be so affected himself. He let the hand that wasn’t holding him up travel, free to explore with Yamaguchi willingly at his mercy. Kei delicately traced the shape of his ear, drew his fingers up over Yamaguchi’s cheeks, imagining that he could read his freckles like braille. He brushed his thumb delicately over Yamaguchi’s closed eyelashes, over his brow, then down his nose and to his lips. They were so soft and slick from where Yamaguchi had been licking them.

Kei groaned. 

He dropped his hand lower, fingertips tracing a path down Yamaguchi’s throat, over his collarbone and lower, to come to rest over his heart. He felt his best friend, his boyfriend’s, chest rise and fall, felt his heart thump powerfully against his ribs. 

Kei exhaled slowly, savoring his last swallow. He moved back, releasing Yamaguchi’s flesh from between his teeth. It was hard to act quickly when all he wanted to do was press himself more fully to Yamaguchi, but he dutifully split open his thumb to close the bite wound. 

He felt his fangs recede and finally chanced a look up at Yamaguchi’s face. It made his heart strike hard against his ribs, freezing his breath in his chest for a second. The other boy was panting shallowly. His narrowed eyes, turned up towards the ceiling, were hazy. He looked close to tears, but not in a bad way. Kei’s body moved before he could think better of it.

He crushed their lips together, a hand on either side of Yamaguchi’s neck. Kei kissed him, once, twice, Yamaguchi’s mouth opening sweetly for him. He dipped his tongue down to meet Yamaguchi’s and then recoiled. 

“I’m sorry,” Kei gasped, realizing his mouth must taste rank with blood. 

There was a smudge of red at the corner of Yamaguchi’s mouth. Kei was trying to look around for water or a tissue when he felt a weak tug at his shirt sleeve. He looked back to see Yamaguchi looking up at him.

“I don’t mind. Really… please just… t-touch me,” he said, stumbling and flushing over his request. 

Kei tried to swallow down his momentary panic. He nodded, and fell into Yamaguchi again. 

They captured each other’s lips again. Kei’s hands ran up and down Yamaguchi’s sides, over his jaw, and through his hair, until he began to feel the other boy’s hands on his skin as well. It was Yamaguchi who broke the kiss to trail his mouth down Kei’s jaw as he got his mobility back. His slick lips slid over the pale skin of Kei’s throat, leaving small, sucking kisses in his wake. Kei screwed his eyes shut tight. It was so much. 

_“Mmmn—ah!”_ Kei said before gritting his teeth. 

Their hips had begun to rock together more obviously. Barring that first time, they’d never gotten this far before. Kei hadn’t ever felt exactly like this before, and he wondered if this is what Yamaguchi had felt like when he’d touched him. He hoped so.

They shifted as Yamaguchi regained his strength. He pulled Kei fully on top of him and they both gasped when their hips aligned. 

_“Yama… Yama—”_

Yamaguchi cut him off, voice strained in Kei’s ear

 _“Tadashi—_ can you… could you call me…”

Kei found himself nodding, pressing his lips to Yamaguchi’s jaw as they moved together. 

_“Tadashi,”_ he whispered and Yamaguchi whimpered.

Fingers dug into the back of Kei’s neck.

“Tsukki, I—I think I’m—”

Their breaths came more frantically now and Kei’s hand dropped to their waistbands. 

“Can I…?”

_“Yes.”_

They both moved awkwardly in an attempt to get their sweats shimmied down to mid-thigh, before pressing together again. Kei hissed as they were skin to skin for the first time. It was like a hot brand against his own skin. Yamaguchi’s arms came up, one around Kei’s back and one around his neck as they began to move together, slicked by their own pre-come. 

Kei was too far gone to care that his breaths were coming in desperate little hiccups. 

_“Tsukki—Tsukki!”_

Yamaguchi was crying his name over again and Kei wasn’t in a much better state. His arms slid under Yamaguchi’s body, pressing their chest together. It lacked finesse but the two teenagers couldn’t care less. 

Yamaguchi spilled first, and the feeling of the slick heat spreading between them should have been gross, but Kei is pretty sure he’ll one day look back on it as his sexual awakening. It wasn’t more than a couple pumps of his hips more for Kei.

 _“Tadashi,”_ he bit out with a broken moan as he found his release, adding to the mess on their stomachs.

They just breathed for a moment in the aftermath, desperately filling their lungs. Kei’s ‘chill’ playlist was still playing in the background. He could hear the sound of someone honking a horn a couple streets away, the rest of the world slowly coming back into focus. 

Kei felt Yamaguchi’s hands on his face, coaxing him back in for another kiss. Suddenly he was giggling. 

“What?” Kei asked.

“My lips and tongue are kinda tingly and numb,” he chuckled.

Kei blushed. He hadn’t thought about the fact that his saliva had probably still contained quite a bit of the pain-relieving venom when he’d kissed Yamaguchi after the bite. At least they knew now that the muscle relaxant properties only worked intravenously. 

“Sorry,” Kei murmured and then shifted. 

His expression shifted into one of disgust as he felt the cooling mess between them.

Yamaguchi laughed at the repulsed look on Kei’s face as they detangled themselves and each used one end of the towel to clean themselves up. 

“We should shower,” Tadashi murmured and moved to get up.

Kei caught him by the wrist before he could go farther and pulled him back down onto the bed.

“Let's just… stay here for a little bit?”

Yamaguchi smiled, willingly tucking himself into Kei’s side, laying his head on the other boy’s shoulder. Kei felt Yamaguchi’s breath puff out over his chest. It was crazy to think that only a few weeks ago he’d been trying to make peace with the idea of this boy fading from his life. It made his throat tighten painfully now. 

“Yama—Tadashi,” Kei said. 

“Hmm?” Yamaguchi mumbled. 

“You’re mine, too.”

“Hm? Your what?” Yamaguchi asked, sounding like he was inching towards a doze.

Kei’s eyes traced over the plastic stars on the ceiling and he felt Yamaguchi’s warm skin beneath his finger tips. He was struck with the sudden thought that he could handle anything if he had _this,_ too. Kei could deal with whatever possibly lay in front of them as long as he had Yamaguchi beside him, as he’d always been. 

“My favorite person. You’re mine, too.” 

Kei could feel Yamaguchi’s wide smile pressed into his neck, and he let his eyes slip shut, just for a little while.

☽ ☆ ☾

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end! Thank you so much for spending your time reading this story and I'd absolutely love to hear what you think in the end!
> 
> If you like this fic I would super appreciate a retweet of the fic tweet [here](https://twitter.com/moonlumie/status/1299810494237171712?s=20)! Once again thank you SO much to [gypsypendragon](https://twitter.com/gypsypendragon/status/1296025596573577217) on twitter for her fantastic art and chibis which were used in the fic edits. 
> 
> If you want to chat or stay up to date on what I post next, feel free to follow me @moonlumie on twitter!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Before the Full Moon](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25894459) by [BadAtLife](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadAtLife/pseuds/BadAtLife)




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